National Security Council of Armenia: Ex-Director of "Hayastan"  Foundation charged with new charges, arrested

ArmInfo. Former Director of  the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Ara Vardanyan has been charged with  new charges in the criminal case initiated in July 2018 about abuse  of the fund.

As the National Security Service press service told ArmInfo, on the  basis of the principle of being as open and transparent as possible  in front of society, the National Security Service considers it  advisable to report that, in the framework of the criminal case on  abuses in the Hayastan Foundation, due to numerous investigative and  search measures, and when comparing the sufficient evidence obtained,  on October 8 of the current year, the charges brought against Ara  Vardanyan were changed, supplemented and brought again. According to  the National Security Council of the Republic of Armenia, Vardanyan  is now charged not with one, but with three articles of the RA  Criminal Code. He is charged not only with abuse of official powers,  but also with embezzlement and forgery, sale or use of documents,  stamps, seals, letterheads, and license plates of vehicles.

"According to documentary evidence, Vardanyan, in preliminary  agreement with the director of the LLC company, whose name is not  mentioned, on October 26, 2017 signed a contract for the supply of  property to educational departments of the administrations of  Askeran, Shaumyansky, Martakert, Gadrut, Kashatag and Martuni  districts of the Artsakh Republic for a total of 149 474 540 drams,  which was never delivered, but the funds were debited from the fund's  accounts, and official falsifications were made to appropriate the  funds debited from the fund's accounts these documents are acts of  delivery and acceptance of material values, "the RA National Security  Council noted, stressing that the court granted the motion to elect  the arrest as a preventive measure against Vardanyan.

The defense of Vardanyan has already made a statement in which she  pointed out that the reason for changing the preventive measure of  their client was his socio-political activity. It should be noted  that the National Security Council of Armenia detained Vardanyan in  July 2018. The latter was charged with abuse of power. However, the  latter was later released on bail. According to the National Security  Council, Vardanyan admitted that he used the Fund's credit line of 25  million drams for bets at various online casinos. However, as  representatives of the fund subsequently stated, Vardanyan returned  the funds spent from the budget even before the intervention of law  enforcement agencies.

Recall that recently Ara Vardanyan has been actively supporting the  second president of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, who is now under  arrest.