168 ZHAM: ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT TO RESTRICT ARMENIAN OFFICIALS’ OFFSHORE BUSINESSES
10:49 29.08.13
The EU Association Agreement is expected to be a restrictive tool for
those Armenian officials who have or wish to have off-shore banking
accounts in Europe, the paper says, citing a former parliament member.
Commenting on the plan to initial the document in Vilnius, Lithuania,
in November, Hovhannes Igityan, a former chairperson of the National
Assembly’s foreign relations’ committee, said the deal will make
information more transparent, thus reducing the chances of any
off-shore activity.
“While now other countries won’t give the Armenian society any
information about the owners of organizations registered in their
states, they will no longer avoid doing that from in future. Any
citizen in any country in Europe can point a finger at any building,
organization or plant to know its owner’s name. From that point of
view, I think, the Armenian officials should to do everything possible
to prevent the agreement from being signed and go to Russia to live
like the Russian oligarchs, maintaining a large fortune in any state,”
he told the paper.