FACTOMETER
en
ру
հյ
In the recent year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s brother, Armen Pashinyan, has been appointed director of 4 companies.
Armen Pashinyan moved to Armenia after the 2018 revolution. Before that he used to live in the Russian Federation.
According to the State Register of Legal Entities, on April 9 last year, Armen Pashinyan became the director of two companies, Go Trade and Mina-Maya.
“Go Trade” LLC was established weeks after the 2018 revolution, on June 14. According to the State Revenue Committee, the company is engaged in providing agricultural machinery and equipment for rent and lease.
Almost no information could be found about this company from open sources, but according to the State Revenue Committee, the company ran at a loss in 2019. The founder of the company is the leader of the Free Democrats Party, former MP Khachatur Kokobelyan, and the director was the latter’s assistant in the National Assembly Hripsime Bocholyan, who also ran in the 2017 parliamentary elections by the list of the same party.
Next year, in 2019, Khachatur Kokobelyan’s brother’s wife, Mary Hakobyan, became a 100% shareholder, and Tigran Gevorgyan was appointed director.
On April 9, 2021, Armen Pashinyan was appointed director of the company.
According to the data of mandatory payments made to the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen, the company had 1-2 employees in 2018-2020, and starting from 2021 – 6-7 employees. Since the beginning of this year, the amount of payments to be made to the foundation has changed, and the company has paid AMD 6000 and 8500, respectively, in the first two months, which means that the company has a maximum of 4 registered employees.
The other company headed by A. Pashinyan, “Mina-Maya“, was founded in 2001. The company operates “Yeghegnadzor” and “Yeghegnadzor SHPP-1” SHPPs built on Yeghegis River. One month after Serzh Sargsyan became President in 2008, the company’s shareholders changed, and Serzh Sargsyan’s brother Alexander’s son, Narek Sargsyan, became the owner of 50% of the shares. The other 50% shareholder was Grigor Arakelyan.
After the Velvet Revolution (in 2019), 100% of the company’s shares were acquired by Vachik Kokobelyan, the brother of the leader of the Free Democrats Party Khachatur Kokobelyan, the candidate nominated by the “We” bloc in the 2018 snap parliamentary elections. The same Tigran Gevorgyan was appointed director of the company, who also held the position of director of “Go Trade” company.
In the case of both “Go Trade” and “Mina-Maya”, on April 9 last year, Nikol Pashinyan’s brother Armen Pashinyan took over the post of director, replacing Tigran Gevorgyan.
A few days later, on April 27, Armen Pashinyan also became the director of another company owned by the Kokobelyans, “Argishti-2″ LLC. The company was founded in February 2020. The founders are the former mayor of Vanadzor, RPA member Samvel Darbinyan and his brother. Just like “Mina-Maya”, “Argishti-2” is engaged in electricity generation, operating “Martsiget SHPP-2”. On April 27 last year, the company was acquired by Khachatur Kokobelyan’s nephew, 20-year-old Yuri Kokobelyan, and on the same day Armen Pashinyan was appointed director of the company.
Starting from the following month, the hydropower plant started producing electricity.
As it has been noted, before being acquired by the Kokobelyans, this company belonged to the former mayor of Vanadzor Samvel Darbinyan and his brother, each having a 50% share.
A criminal case was initiated against Samvel Darbinyan back in August 2019 on the grounds of several episodes of abuse of official position during his tenure.
By an interesting coincidence, the preliminary investigation of the criminal case initiated months after Armen Pashinyan became the director of the company was finally completed (more than 2 years after the initiation of the criminal case) and was sent to court in October, where it was immediately terminated and the criminal charges against Darbinyan were dropped.
However, the Kokobelyan-Pashinyan cooperation does not end here. In October of last year, “Mit Agro” LLC was established in the name of Kokobelyan’s nephew, Yuri Kokobelyan, which, according to the State Revenue Committee, is engaged in meat trade. The director of the company was again Tigran Gevorgyan, as in the case of the Kokobelyans’ other companies.
However, on February 19 of this year, Nikol Pashinyan’s brother Armen Pashinyan was again appointed director of “Mit Agro” LLC, replacing Tigran Gevorgyan in that position.
Who is Tigran Gevorgyan
Although it was quite difficult to identify Tigran Gevorgyan due to the popularity of the name, we managed to find out from the State Register of Legal Entities that the same person holds managerial positions in many companies, one of which is “Clerical Office No. 1” LLC.
This company belonged to Lilit Khachatryan, the wife of Sasun Khachatryan, the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee. In 2018, Lilit Khachatryan donated the company to Tigran Gevorgyan.
It is noteworthy that during the interview for the position of the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee in 2021, Sasun Khachatryan stated that Tigran Gevorgyan is the brother of his wife, Lilit Khachatryan.
It turns out that the Kokobelyans’ businesses were previously run by Sasun Khachatryan’s wife’s brother, and since last year, the Kokobelyans have replaced Tigran Gevorgyan with Armen Pashinyan.
As it was mentioned above, before the revolution in 2018, Armen Pashinyan lived in the Russian Federation and returned to Armenia only after the revolution. We learn from the mandatory payments made to the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen that Armen Pashinyan started his activity in Armenia in February 2019.
The Fact Investigation Platform contacted him in order to find out what Armen Pashinyan did before the revolution.
Armen Pashinyan confirmed that he returned to Armenia after the revolution, and before that he had worked in a logistics company as a director of logistics. To the question what kind of logistics organization he worked in, Pashinyan refused to answer, saying that he needs the permission of the director of the company to give out such information.
Sevada Ghazaryan
Hakob Karapetyan
