4 billion AMD recovered to the budget since Arthur Vanetsyan’s resignation. Former director of the National Security Service is wrong

Arthur Vanetsyan, former director of the National Security Service and leader of the newly formed Motherland Party, announced in Vanadzor on June 3 that no money has been returned to the budget since his resignation from the post of director of the National Security Service.

In particular, during the opening of the newly established party’s Vanadzor office, Vanetsyan noted: “…The authorities point to the 43 billion that have been recovered to the budget, which were returned to the budget during my tenure. After my resignation, nothing has been returned to the state budget.”

Meanwhile, the Fact Investigation Platform has revealed that the statement of the former director of the National Security Service does not correspond to reality. It should be noted that we are talking about the money recovered from the damage caused to the state by corruption crimes investigated in the NSS Investigation Department.

It should be noted that Arthur Vanetsyan was appointed director of the National Security Service on May 10, 2018, immediately after the revolution. About a year and a half later, in September 2019, he was dismissed from office. It was followed by Vanetsyan’s announcement that he would go into politics, and his criticism of the current authorities. The former director of the National Security Service, who adopted an opposition stance, was elected chairman of the center-right Motherland Party in May 2020.

In response to the inquiry by Fip.am, the National Security Service presented the amount of money returned to the state budget during Arthur Vanetsyan’s tenure.

The presented documents reveal that after his tenure, billions of Armenian drams have been recovered.

During Arthur Vanetsyan’s tenure (17 months – from May 2018 to September 2019), approximately AMD 16 billion 874 million 166 thousand were restored to the budget.

And from September 16, 2019 to June 2020 (10 months), AMD 3 billion 943 million 670 thousand were recovered from the total damage caused to the state within the framework of criminal cases under investigation by the NSS Investigation Department.

It is noteworthy that the AMD 43 billion pointed out by Artur Vanetsyan were restored not only as a result of actions taken by the NSS, but also by all law enforcement agencies (the Police, State Revenue Committee, National Security and Special Investigation Services). And as we see, only after Vanetsyan’s resignation, the NSS has restored about 4 billion AMD to the state budget within the framework of the corruption cases.

Lusine Voskanyan