Another corruption scandal jolts Armenia's Defence Ministry Former employees arrested

Armenia's Investigative Committee has revealed embezzlement in the country's Ministry of Defence in the amount of 106 million 300 thousand drams paid within the framework of procurement procedures organised in 2019-202, Caliber.Az reports citing Armenian media.

According to the Armenian Investigative Committee, five people, including former employees of the Ministry of Defence, have been detained on suspicion of using their official position for fraud and embezzlement of 106.3 million drams (about $270,000 - ed.).

According to the agency, the head of the Armenian Defence Ministry's Information and Public Relations Department, G. A. colluded with A.B, director of "El" LLC and S.A, head of Nor NGO and founder of dasaran.am website, and with the help of Department employees K.P and A.A. in 2019-2021, entered false data into procurement documents and stole 106.3 million drams from the state.

G.A. is accused of fraud and official forgery, the director of "El" LLC A.B. and the founder of dasaran.am website S.A. of fraud, and the employees of the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Ministry of Defence of Armenia of official forgery. They were detained and a motion for arrest of G.A., S.A. and A.B. was submitted.

It is noted that the head of the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Armenian Ministry of Defence in 2019-2021 was Gevorg Altunyan, and the owner of the website dasaran.am was Suren Aloyan.