Armenian Offshore Capital In Cyprus Banks May Lead To Crisis At Home

ARMENIAN OFFSHORE CAPITAL IN CYPRUS BANKS MAY LEAD TO CRISIS AT HOME

Haykakan Zhamanak, Armenia
March 21 2013

[Translated from Armenian]

Yerevan, 21 March: The financial crisis in Cyprus’ banking system
which is currently in the global focus may also have a serious impact
on Armenia’s banking sector in the near future.

The reason is that a sum of rather suspicious capital of Armenian
origin has been deposited in Cyprus banks. This capital mainly belongs
to our high-ranking officials who are investing this money in Armenia
via Cyprus for them to be considered as foreign investments.

By acting in this way, they manage to hide their assets from the
public. To get a clear idea about the volume of these “dark sums”,
it is worth noting that in the Armenian banking system alone,
Cypriot investments, even according to official data, amount to some
84m dollars.