Former head of RA State Revenue Committee under house arrest

ArmInfo.  The court has replaced the pretrial detention measure for Vardan Harutyunyan, former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), with two months of house arrest. This was reported by local media.

Harutyunyan was arrested on August 8, and his detention has already  been extended once.

According to the Anti-Corruption Committee, he is charged with  illegal business activity, violating antitrust laws, and money  laundering. Media outlets reported that the basis of the crime  against Harutyunyan is his founding of Norfolk Consulting during his  tenure as SRC Chairman, through which he carried out activities  deemed illegal by law enforcement. Vardan Harutyunyan headed the SRC  from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, he was the head of Gazprom Armenia.

As a reminder, on May 25, 2018, the National Security Service of  Armenia announced that it had uncovered a criminal scheme as part of  its efforts to combat corruption and economic crime. According to the  NSS, Norfolk Consulting, a large company operating in Armenia and a  customs declarant providing customs services, maliciously evaded  taxes, duties, and other mandatory payments on an especially large  scale. The company failed to pay approximately $7 million to the  state budget. The Investigative Department of the NSS opened a  criminal case under Part 2 of Article 205 ("Evasion of taxes, duties,  or other mandatory payments") and Part 2 of Article 308 ("Abuse of  office, which through negligence resulted in grave consequences") of  the Criminal Code of Armenia. Several people were arrested in  connection with this case, including the general director of Norfolk  Consulting and former chief accountant of Gazprom Armenia, Armen  Hunanyan.