Thursday, August 24 2023 15:51

ArmInfo. Former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican, son-in-law of the third President of Armenia  Serzh Sargsyan Mikayel Minasyan has been charged with new charges.

As the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reported,  Minasyan, holding in 2008-2012 the position of the first deputy head  of the presidential administration of the Republic of Armenia, and in  2013-2018 the ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the Holy See,  despite the legislative ban on entrepreneurial activities, until  2016, both personally and with his friends A.P. and L.A. took part in  the management of the enterprise, legitimizing the property on an  especially large scale, obtained by criminal means.

By the decision of the prosecutor for supervision, the criminal  prosecution against M.M. initiated on the grounds of clause 1, part  3, article 190 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia  (legalization of especially large amounts of property obtained by  criminal means (money laundering).

Thus, the investigation found that out of the state property of the  Dzora HPP section allocated by the government decision of May 21,  2001 from the property of the Ministry of Energy Armenergoremont  CJSC, the Dzora HPP CJSC was established.  The authority to manage  the company's shares has been assigned to the Ministry of Defense.   On December 16, 2010, the Ministry of Defense drafted a secret  government decision approving the signing of a large deal for the  sale of the above-mentioned property. The draft proposed to allow the  Ministry of Defense to approve the conclusion of a large deal,  namely, to sell the property for 3 billion 600 million drams to the  Dzoraget Hydro LLC, actually managed by M.M. 

"Dzoraget Hydro" LLC was founded by Minayan's affiliates A.P. and  L.A. through the MGDC Inc trading company and the Water Group LLC  registered in the British Virgin Islands on October 27, 2010.

According to the property sale agreement concluded on December 20,  2010, the property of Dzora HPP CJSC with a market value of 4 billion  646 million 400 thousand drams was alienated for 3 billion 600  million drams to Dzoraget Hydro LLC managed by M.M.

Then the government, in order to establish benefits for Dzoraget  Hydro LLC, in 2011 increased the capacity index from 10 MW to 30 MW,  which was set for small hydroelectric power plants. As a result,  Dzoraget Hydro LLC with a capacity of 26.4 MW, which is a large  hydroelectric power station, was included in the list of small  hydropower plants. Then the Public Services Regulatory Commission  changed the methodology for calculating tariffs for the sale of  electricity generated by Dzoraget Hydro. As a result, Dzoraget Hydro  received an additional 3.75 billion drams from consumers (individuals  and legal entities).

M.M. hid the fact that he actually owned 30% of the shares of  Dzoraget Hydro and in 2011- 2016 received dividends in the amount of  more than 1.113 billion drams.

It is noted that in order to distort the criminal origin of a  particularly large amount of money actually received from as a result  of illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities during the  specified period - 333 million 861 thousand drams, with the intention  of legalizing them, M.M. mixed the aforementioned money with his  other incomes, then various civil legal transactions, that is, the  methods of performing various banking operations, he gave them a  legal form.

Since 2020, Mikayel Minasyan has been accused of illegal enrichment,  providing false information in the declaration of income and property  and legalizing property obtained by criminal means, he has been put  on the wanted list