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.