Sanitek filed a lawsuit against Armenia to ICSID demanding  compensation for its investments

ArmInfo.Sanitek has filed  a lawsuit against Armenia in the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) demanding compensation for its  investments. This is stated in a statement by the company's  management.

According to the source, for almost two years now, the law  enforcement system of Armenia, represented by the investigative  bodies, the prosecutor's office and the courts, apparently following  the instructions of the executive power, has been illegally pursuing  the shareholders of the Sanitek group of companies, who are foreign  investors. As the authors of the statement note, various criminal  cases have been unlawfully initiated against them, which have not  been terminated yet. Nevertheless, no charges were brought against  any official, no episode of the crime was established, which  testifies to the groundlessness of the case. The preliminary  investigation is currently not being conducted, the criminal cases  have reached a dead end. The aforementioned criminal cases are a  continuation of the previous illegal actions of the Yerevan  Municipality, which refused to fulfill its payment obligations to the  Sanitek group of companies, submitting a number of unsubstantiated  lawsuits. In addition to initiating unfounded criminal cases, the  prosecutor's office and investigative bodies, at the direction of the  Mayor of Yerevan, carried out an illegal process of terminating  contracts with Sanitek companies in order to transfer these contracts  to a company owned by the municipality. Apart from the fact that the  property illegally confiscated from Sanitek was transferred to a  newly formed company, the Yerevan Municipality now spends at least 20  percent more money organizing the same services through its own  company without paying the relevant taxes, as evidenced by numerous  publications. These actions result in the expropriation of Sanitek's  investment.

As a result of these actions, the Sanitek group of companies was  forced to cease operations and go bankrupt, which led to negative  consequences for the company's shareholders. "At the same time, it  should be noted that the Sanitek group of companies has repeatedly  appealed to the current authorities with a request to return to the  negotiation process, expressing their readiness to make additional  investments, but unsuccessfully, all appeals and attempts to reach an  agreement were unsuccessful. For several months, Sanitek hoped that  in the conditions of a devastating war, a catastrophic epidemic, the  Armenian government will show goodwill and express a desire to  resolve the situation. Nevertheless, the country's authorities  continued their policy of refusing any cooperation, leaving Sanitek  with no choice but to file a lawsuit against Armenia at the  International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes  (ICSID) against Armenia, demanding reimbursement of tens of millions  of dollars of investment, " the company's statement reads.

To recall, on October 3, 2019, it became known about the early  termination of the agreement between the capital's administration and  Sanitek. The company believes that they were ousted from the market  in order to expand the activities of the municipal institution  "Garbage collection and sanitary cleaning in Yerevan".