Blogger Baghdasaryan: Brother of ex-head of Armenian special services arrested in Moscow

Armenian blogger Roman Baghdasaryan has reported that the brother of the ex-head of Armenian special services, billionaire Karen Vanetsyan was arrested in Moscow.

"Billionaire Karen Vanetsyan, owner of the largest oil production company in the Russian Federation, which owns Ideal and Oleina brands, has been detained in Moscow and a case for money laundering has been opened against him in Armenia," Baghdasaryan wrote on his Facebook page, Caliber.Az reports.

"The night before, Moscow police detained 55-year-old citizen of Armenia and Switzerland Karen Vanetsyan on Novy Arbat. In 2018, the Armenian Prosecutor's Office opened a case against him under the article ‘Money laundering with the use of official powers’, and in November 2023 declared him wanted.

According to the investigators' version, in 2018, Vanetsyan purchased and managed 12.5 per cent of the shares of the Zangezur copper and molybdenum combine for 15.5 million dollars, which actually belonged to the Armenian ambassador to the Vatican. Local investigators believe that Vanetsyan received 35 million dollars as a result of all the illegal transactions.

A year ago, Karen Vanetsyan acquired the Russian business of US agro-trader Bunge, a producer of oil under the Ideal, Oleina and Maslenitsa brands. The deal lasted from September 2022 to February 2023. The businessman said that during the sale the Americans discounted more than half of the value of the acquired assets, but did not name the exact amount. The authorized capital of his company after the purchase is 1.3 billion rubles [$14.4 million].

Karen Vanetsyan is the brother of the former head of Armenia's National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan. The Vanetsyan family is the Soprano clan, which robbed the state as much as it could," the blogger writes.