Monday, June 15 2020 20:11

ArmInfo.  The leader of the Prosperous Armenia party Gagik Tsarukyan has no direct relation to the activities of Onira Club LLC. This is stated in a statement by  the company's management.

<< Onira Club> transferred to trust management, and the company's  management is carried out by top managers who arrived from England  and Russia. Instead of 40 billion drams prescribed by law for a  license, Onira Club invested more than 61 billion drams. As for the  information on the activities of two different casinos under the same  license, we note that it does not correspond to reality, since we are  talking about two different halls of the same casino, which are  located in different rooms of the restaurant and hotel complex, have  one address, one bookkeeping, one working apparatus, which,  incidentally, approved by the government represented by the package  of the investment program.

We want to emphasize that over the entire period of activity, the  complex was under the close attention of the relevant authorities.  During this period, many large-scale inspections have been carried  out both by the State Revenue Committee and the Ministry of Finance,  including over the past two years. During the inspections at Onira  Club, not a single violation or illegal activity was revealed,  otherwise the company would certainly not have been issued a license  for activity.

In this case, the question arises: if as a result of tax audits for  each year no violations were revealed, how could damage caused to the  state in the amount of 30 billion drams appear from the air, since  "Onira Club" paid about 5 annually for the entire period, 5 billion  drams of taxes and is one of the largest taxpayers in Armenia. We  also inform you that the Onira Club restaurant and hotel complex has  700 employees who, due to the unlawful persecution that has begun,  may become unemployed, "the statement said.

Earlier, the NSS reported an illegal gambling business, which caused  damage to the state in the amount of more than 29 billion drams (over  60 million dollars). In particular, in December 2013, the Armenian  government established a list of territories and regions in which the  construction of a casino is permitted by special order. For this,  special territories were allocated in the resort Tsaghkadzor of the  Kotayk region, in the city of Jermuk, Vayots, Dzor region, in Sevan,  Meghri, as well as in the capital's Zvartnots airport.  Meanwhile,  the authorized persons of Onira Club LLC, engaged in the field of  gambling, presented in the relevant documentation the territory of  the existing Shangri La casino, located on the Yerevan-Sevan highway,  as complying with the rules established by the government. In  addition, by the decision of the government, investments in gambling  in excess of 40 billion drams fell under preferential terms, and  Onira Club representatives indicated in their application false data  on 61 billion drams of investments in the Shangri La building and  adjacent entertainment facilities with 500 jobs have secured these  preferential conditions for themselves. In fact, the state was  deprived of the opportunity to receive these investments.  The SNB  also notes that representatives of Onira Club, having received a  license to organize a gambling business, in violation of gambling and  tax laws, in 2014 actually opened a new casino on the territory of  the already mentioned facility. While the license did not imply a  similar activity near an existing casino. As a result of this illegal  activity, the state budget missed the indicated 29 billion drams. On  fact, a criminal case was opened in the NSS Investigation Department  on June 13.

On the eve, searches were conducted in the house of the PAP leader,  and he himself was summoned for interrogation by the SNB. Two more  criminal cases related to election bribes in 2017 and the  misappropriation of land were also reported. Meanwhile, Tsarukyan  called the incident political persecution in response to his calls to  change the composition of the government.