Armenian opposition figure Gagik Tsarukyan arrested

Armenian authorities have arrested the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan for alleged money laundering. The eccentric tycoon had recently run in the June parliamentary elections, but failed to make it to parliament. He has since been placed under investigation for financial crimes and a travel ban.

Tsarukyan appears to have been arrested on Monday evening.

According to independent media outlet Civilnet, his lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, told lawyers that he was charged with aiding and abetting fraud and money laundering. He additionally claimed that he was detained as part of a case where he ‘should have been recognised as a victim’.

Sargsyan explained that the case involves the creation of a joint Armenian–Iranian chamber aimed at developing economic cooperation between the neighbouring countries. He said that the proposed chamber had received necessary permits from the state, and that ‘significant investments were made’. However, he said that some Iranian nationals ‘committed abuses’, leading Tsarukyan to sue them.

‘Instead of recognising the organisation with his participation as the victim, they decided to make Gagik Tsarukyan the defendant’, Sargsyan said, adding that he believed the arrest to be politically motivated.

Citing the Investigative Committee, the state-run media outlet Armenpress reported that he had embezzled upwards of ֏8.1 billion ($22 million) through establishing a logistics and freight link with Iran. It alleged that his group ‘fraudulently imported 52 vehicles, machinery, fuel, and various other goods from companies owned by Iranian entrepreneurs’.

The committee has also accused Tsarukyan of defrauding an Iranian national out of over $930,000 worth of petrol.

Charges have also been pressed against two other people alleged to be associated with Tsarukyan in the case.

The committee has also said that more than 10 criminal cases involving alleged large-scale fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion have been investigated by the authorities through raids at more than 70 addresses linked to Tsarukyan.

The authorities began their raids on these addresses — including Tsarukyan’s home — on Monday morning.

According to Tsarukyan’s associates, they targeted the Ararat Cement Plant, the Yerevan Brandy-Wine-Vodka Plant, and the Multi Wellness Centre in Yerevan, among others.

Armenpress later reported that the authorities have also confiscated lions Tsarukyan had kept in his residence, transferring them to the Yerevan Zoo. Iveta Tonoyan, a spokesperson for Prosperous Armenia, said the animals had been ‘kept in the best possible conditions’ at the tycoon’s home.

Tsarukyan has been under investigation since 9 June, a mere two days after Armenians took to the polls to vote in the parliamentary elections.

At the time, Prosperous Armenia was still awaiting the outcome of vote recounts which would have determined whether it entered parliament. The Central Election Commission (CEC) later announced that the opposition party failed to pass the 4% electoral threshold to secure seats in the legislature.

He had apparently attempted to leave the country through Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport before being placed under investigation, but was barred from doing so.

Tsarukyan is one of the wealthiest men in Armenian politics. Having begun his business career in food processing during the 1990s, over three decades he has amassed a stake in a wide variety of industries throughout Armenia, including alcohol and food production, casinos, hotels, mineral extraction, pharmaceuticals, and most recently, bitcoin mining.

The eccentric tycoon has previously been charged under a number of crimes in the past. In 2020, the authorities accused him of electoral bribery allegedly committed in the 2017 elections. He was also under investigation for operating the Shangri La casino without a license. Armenia revoked the Shangri La’s license in late June.

Additionally, Tsarukyan was sentenced for raping two women in 1979, for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison. According to RFE/RL, it is not clear whether Tsarukyan served the sentence imposed by the Soviet-era court.

In 2001, during Robert Kocharyan’s presidency, the Armenian Court of Cassation overturned the verdict, exonerating Tsarukyan.

This article was translated into Georgian and republished by our partner Publika.