Armenian opposition leader Tsarukyan loses lawyer over conflict of interest in

Armenian investigators have removed Yerem Sargsyan as Prosperous Armenia leader Gagik Tsarukyan’s lawyer in the money laundering and fraud case he is fighting. They cited a conflict of interest, saying that one of the defendants identified him as a witness in the case.

Sargsyan announced his removal from the case in a press briefing on Wednesday.

According to the state-run media outlet Armenpress, Tsarukyan spent 21 and 22 July at the Investigative Committee’s Main Department for the Investigation of Economic Crimes and Smuggling, where ‘investigative actions were carried out as part of the criminal proceedings’.

Sargsyan said that as part of the investigation, Tsarukyan had been confronted by an Iranian citizen whose testimony formed the basis of the criminal case against him.

According to Sargsyan, shortly before the confrontation, investigators informed him that he could no longer represent Tsarukyan in these proceedings.

‘The Iranian citizen testified that I was also present at some of their meetings with Gagik Tsarukyan. [Armenian authorities] concluded that I might have information relevant to the case and could therefore be questioned as a witness’, Sargsyan said.

He was already summoned for questioning ‘as a witness’ on Wednesday afternoon.

Sargsyan, according to CivilNet, characterised the decision as ‘unlawful’ and claimed the actual reason for his removal was the defence team’s active involvement in the case and its efforts to expose ‘contradictions’ in the alleged victim’s testimony.

Sargsyan said they would appeal the decision to remove him from the case.

Tsarukyan was arrested earlier in July on charges of large-scale fraud and money laundering over activities allegedly carried out between 2022 and 2024.

Following his arrest, Sargsyan argued that Tsarukyan had been detained in a case in which he ‘should have been recognised as a victim’, adding that he believed the arrest to be politically motivated.

Sargsyan explained that the case concerns the creation of a joint Armenian–Iranian organisation aimed at developing economic cooperation between the neighbouring countries. He said that the proposed organisation 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.

Citing the Investigative Committee, the state-run media outlet Armenpress reported at the time that Tsarukyan 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.

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

He is one of the wealthiest men in Armenian politics. Having begun his business career in food processing during the 1990s, in the following three decades he 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 with several crimes in the past.

He was convicted of 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.