Hrazdan Stadium was sold at 200 times lower than market price

ArmInfo. The Hrazdan stadium was sold to former MP from the Republican Party of Armenia Ashot  Aghababyan (Burnash) at a price 200 times lower than its market price.

According to the RA Prosecutor General's Office, as a result of  studying documents related to the process of privatization of the  property of the Hrazdan Sports Complex , it was established that all  property, buildings, structures and territory of the company are  under a lease agreement concluded in 2001 (the "Hrazdan" stadium,  located at Yerevan, Hrazdan Gorge, 4, buildings with an area of about  62 thousand square meters and a land plot with an area of 14  hectares), were leased to the "Hrazdan Sports Complex Leasing  Enterprise" CJSC (hereinafter the Company).

According to Government Decision No. 1333 of July October 22, 2004,  part of the leased property, a land plot with an area of 10.4443  hectares and buildings with an area of 61660.3 sq.m., a sports  complex, the Hrazdan stadium, were alienated to the tenant by direct  sale. The sale price of the property was set at 87 million 520  thousand drams (there was no justification for such a price in the  research data; the proposal of the Minister of Finance and Economy to  conduct an assessment of the property by an independent appraiser  with the appropriate qualifications to establish a more realistic  price was not taken into account).  The basis for the government's  decision was data from the Department of State Property Management,  according to which more than $900 thousand had already been invested  under the lease agreement signed in 2001. Meanwhile, according to  data received from the State Property Committee as part of the  investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office, there is no data on  the Company's investments in the amount of 900 thousand US dollars in  2001-2004.

On January 7, 2005, by decision of the general meeting of the  Company, shareholder of the same company A.A. assumed the obligations  assumed by the Company under the privatization agreement of state  property, signed in 2004, to invest 2 million US dollars by 2009. In  2010, the Company was renamed into the Hrazdan Central Stadium CJSC ,  from which "Europark" shopping center CJSC and "SOLIDUS" CJSC were  later separated. By a decision of the court of general jurisdiction  of the administrative districts of Kentron and Nork-Marash in Yerevan  in 2015, the Hrazdan Central Stadium CJSC  was declared bankrupt, and  in 2019 liquidation proceedings were initiated against the Company. 

Taking into account that, based on unreliable data provided by  officials, during this period the government sold the Hrazdan  stadium, a property with a market value of about 11 billion 558  million drams (currently the cadastral value close to the market  value is 16 billion 127 million 253 thousand drams) , for only 87  million 520 thousand drams, the prosecutor filed a statement of crime  to the Anti-Corruption Committee.  On February 10, 2024, the  Anti-Corruption Committee opened a criminal case under Article 441,  Part 2, Clause 2 of the Criminal Code (abuse of official or official  powers, or influence or transfer of authority arising from them) and  Part 2 of Article 445 (official forgery).

It should be noted that the Hrazdan stadium is the largest and only  two-tier stadium in Armenia. It was built with the financial support  of the Armenian philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian in 1970-1971. The  sports complex is located on the slope of the Hrazdan River gorge,  from which it got its name. Initially, the stadium accommodated 75  thousand spectators, but after partial reconstruction and  installation of individual seats in 2002, the stadium can accommodate  55 thousand spectators. The stadium is of a two-tier level, the  dimensions of the field are 105x68 meters, and includes halls for  various sports.