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Government Officials Gobble-Up $170 Million: Prosecutor General Feigns Ignorance
Edik Baghdasaryan
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/24209/government-officials-gobble-up-$170-million-prosecutor-general-feigns-ignorance.html
13:45, March 7, 2013
Hetq has spent the last seven months tracking the trail of $170
million in loans received by the Nairit Plant to ostensibly get up and
working again.
The money has literally vanished under the eyes of a government that
daily proclaims to struggle against corruption and all its social
ills.
Readers will surely remember the lofty speeches made by President
Serzh Sargsyan last year at various government sessions, the Ministry
of Defense and the Prosecutor General's Office. `We must wage a
relentless struggle against corruption in all its forms,' he boldly
announced.
Sadly, our government officials didn't get the message. More likely
they didn't believe in its sincerity.
It turns out that our government is capable of `making money'
everywhere and from every possible situation. They even steal from
orphanages, old age homes, psychiatric wards and the army.
Even after Serzh Sargsyan's litany of speeches, no one has been held
accountable. No large-scale corruption cases have been brought to
public scrutiny.
This just goes to show that law enforcement simply gives no importance
to what the president has to say on the matter. Thus, we can speak and
write about how they cheat and rob us, how they bribe to get lucrative
government contracts, how they avoid paying taxes, how this and that,
till we turn blue.
But naming names is a no-no, especially when the culprits are
high-level government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and
state ministers.
Even when we lay out the evidence in clear and concise fashion, our
Prosecutor General can't lift a finger. Aghvan Hovsepyan can't take
independent action without being instructed to do so. If he does, he
might be the next victim of the system.
Hovsepyan has to protect his own interests and understands that the
best way to do this is not to meddle in the affairs of others.
Thus, when it comes to the Nairit Plant scandal, he has no choice but
to keep it under wraps.
Hetq has collected the bits and pieces of information surrounding the
scandal like a jigsaw puzzle. What we end up with is a fairly
comprehensive picture of all the nooks and crannies in which the
millions of dollars of Nairit loans and other funds have disappeared
like sinkhole victims.
We've laid the issue on the table for all to see. But the government
and law-enforcement continue to turn a blind eye.
Soon, we will publish the last in our series of investigative articles
regarding Nairit. Law enforcement cannot avoid seeing the facts
staring them in the face. They prove that a number of criminal laws
have been violated - money laundering, bribery, abuse of state power,
etc.
In the final analysis, the government of Armenia is to blame;
specifically the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Why?
Because it holds 10% of the shares in Nairit Plant.
The government knew of the scores of offshore and Russian-based
enterprises that Nairit created to siphon off the money and of the
bank transfers involved.
Vahan Melkonyan, the Interstate Bank representative in Armenia, who
also served as the Managing Director of Nairit when the loans were
received, can testify in detail as to mechanism involved.
Our efforts to get the Nairit issue raised in the halls of the
National Assembly have yet to meet with success.
Through this loan fiasco story, the public will also realize how
Armenia's foreign debt is piling up. This is because it is already
clear that the all the debts of the offshore Rhinoville Property
Limited have been assumed by Nairit Plant CJSC.
It will soon also become apparent that those debts, in turn, will be
assumed by the government of Armenia. Court proceedings have already
begun in Russia, and the defendant is Nairit Plant CJSC.
Edik Baghdasaryan
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/24209/government-officials-gobble-up-$170-million-prosecutor-general-feigns-ignorance.html
13:45, March 7, 2013
Hetq has spent the last seven months tracking the trail of $170
million in loans received by the Nairit Plant to ostensibly get up and
working again.
The money has literally vanished under the eyes of a government that
daily proclaims to struggle against corruption and all its social
ills.
Readers will surely remember the lofty speeches made by President
Serzh Sargsyan last year at various government sessions, the Ministry
of Defense and the Prosecutor General's Office. `We must wage a
relentless struggle against corruption in all its forms,' he boldly
announced.
Sadly, our government officials didn't get the message. More likely
they didn't believe in its sincerity.
It turns out that our government is capable of `making money'
everywhere and from every possible situation. They even steal from
orphanages, old age homes, psychiatric wards and the army.
Even after Serzh Sargsyan's litany of speeches, no one has been held
accountable. No large-scale corruption cases have been brought to
public scrutiny.
This just goes to show that law enforcement simply gives no importance
to what the president has to say on the matter. Thus, we can speak and
write about how they cheat and rob us, how they bribe to get lucrative
government contracts, how they avoid paying taxes, how this and that,
till we turn blue.
But naming names is a no-no, especially when the culprits are
high-level government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and
state ministers.
Even when we lay out the evidence in clear and concise fashion, our
Prosecutor General can't lift a finger. Aghvan Hovsepyan can't take
independent action without being instructed to do so. If he does, he
might be the next victim of the system.
Hovsepyan has to protect his own interests and understands that the
best way to do this is not to meddle in the affairs of others.
Thus, when it comes to the Nairit Plant scandal, he has no choice but
to keep it under wraps.
Hetq has collected the bits and pieces of information surrounding the
scandal like a jigsaw puzzle. What we end up with is a fairly
comprehensive picture of all the nooks and crannies in which the
millions of dollars of Nairit loans and other funds have disappeared
like sinkhole victims.
We've laid the issue on the table for all to see. But the government
and law-enforcement continue to turn a blind eye.
Soon, we will publish the last in our series of investigative articles
regarding Nairit. Law enforcement cannot avoid seeing the facts
staring them in the face. They prove that a number of criminal laws
have been violated - money laundering, bribery, abuse of state power,
etc.
In the final analysis, the government of Armenia is to blame;
specifically the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Why?
Because it holds 10% of the shares in Nairit Plant.
The government knew of the scores of offshore and Russian-based
enterprises that Nairit created to siphon off the money and of the
bank transfers involved.
Vahan Melkonyan, the Interstate Bank representative in Armenia, who
also served as the Managing Director of Nairit when the loans were
received, can testify in detail as to mechanism involved.
Our efforts to get the Nairit issue raised in the halls of the
National Assembly have yet to meet with success.
Through this loan fiasco story, the public will also realize how
Armenia's foreign debt is piling up. This is because it is already
clear that the all the debts of the offshore Rhinoville Property
Limited have been assumed by Nairit Plant CJSC.
It will soon also become apparent that those debts, in turn, will be
assumed by the government of Armenia. Court proceedings have already
begun in Russia, and the defendant is Nairit Plant CJSC.