Employees of the Economic Security and Countering Corruption and Shirak Regional Department of the RA National Security Service, pursuing a consistent fight against corruption phenomena, cooperating with employees of the Investigation Department of the RA National Security Service, have detected cases of official forgery and theft of community property on an especially large scale-in total 17.275.000 AMD- by the former head of Bagravan community of Shirak province.

Thus.

The head of the community A.P., having entered into a preliminary conspiracy with some fellow villagers, recruited a number of persons in Bagravan municipality, in the conditions of non-attendance at work and non-performance of work duties, he drew up, approved and certified forged payrolls of working hours  with forged content which are an official document granting the right, other documents that are the basis for the payment of wages, in which he entered apparent false information about the attendance at work by the mentioned employees, performance of functional duties, etc. Then, having introduced the documents with false content into circulation, he submitted them for payment, as a result of which in the name of a number of persons from the community budget a total of 6.020.000 AMD was unjustifiably written out and was stolen illegally, free of charge, for mercenary motives, during 2015-2017 by embezzlement or misappropriation.

In addition, the head of Bagravan community A.P., having entered into a preliminary conspiracy with the accountant of the municipality, during 2012-2013 having received payments of 2.000.000 AMD from 22 residents of the community for sowing wheat provided within the framework of the state support program, did not enter the amount into the community budget, did not transfer it to the account of “Seeds Agency” SNCO, and using his official position, committed theft by embezzlement. 

In addition to the above, the head of Bagravan community during 2010-2014 on false statements, filled in on behalf of 10 socially disadvantaged persons of the community and signed by other persons, wrote out a total of 1.500.000 AMD from the community budget, which he did not transfer to them, but instead committed theft, using this amount for his personal needs.

In the course of the measures taken, it was established also that the head of Bagravan community A.P., with the intent of committing theft of someone else’s property, reaching an especially large size, by fraud, having entered into a preliminary conspiracy with his relatives, drew up and certified forged in content agreements on renting cars by the municipality belonging to the latter, meanwhile, in reality, the mentioned cars were never used by the employees of the staff of the head of Bagravan community or for the needs of the community, as a result of which, as part of the performance of obligations under the deliberately forged lease agreements signed in the name of car owners, from the community budget an especially large amount -7.775.000 AMD -was withdrawn and was stolen by fraud.

 In connection with the incident, a criminal case was initiated in the Investigation Department of the RA National Security Service on the grounds of Article 179, Part 3, Clause 1, Article 178, Part 2, Clauses 1, 1.1 and 2, Article 178, Part 3, Clause 1 and Article 314, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code; the preliminary investigation is being conducted.

Criminal procedural and operative-search measures are being taken in the direction of detecting other corruption crimes committed in Bagravan municipality and establishing the identities of citizens who have suffered as a result of these crimes.

Note: The suspect or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent as long as his guilt is not proven in a manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of RA - by the court decision entered into legal force.