Alen Simonyan’s denial leads to new questions: FIP.am invites to an interview

Member of Parliament Alen Simonyan presented a statement from ArmEconomBank during his Facebook live, which states that Simonyan opened a $ 16,000 credit line on his plastic card on 8 June 2018. The aforementioned amount was cashed on the same day. According to Simonyan, he purchased his RANGE ROVER EVOQUE with the involvement of this sum.

Alen Simonyan’s Facebook live

Alen Simonyan had earlier noted that he bought the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE for $ 25,500 on June 12. According to Simonyan’s claims, he sold his former MITSUBISHI ASX car for $ 11,500. The remaining amount was paid from the loan money ($ 16,000).

However, the bank statement submitted by the MP and his related comment reveal new issues with regard to the data available in the NA Vice President’s declarations.

Alen Simonyan claims that “at that time [at the time of buying the car] he did not have enough money, and he approached the bank where he had had an account for years and asked to open an overdraft credit line.”  Nevertheless, Simonyan’s statement about the lack of means does not correspond to the data presented in his declarations, since the declaration for May (as of the day of assuming the office) which was submitted to the Ethics Committee in June, clearly indicated that Alen Simonyan had $ 16,200 and 2 million AMD.

It should be noted here that FIP.am probably would not conduct an investigation if Alen Simonyan properly presented his declarations.

The NA Vice President did not present the credit from the bank in his declarations, whereas, according to the established procedure, it was to be presented in the annual declaration submitted to the Central Electoral Commission in November. In other words, if the information provided by Alen Simonyan is true, he also submitted a false declaration to the CEC, concealing the $ 16,000 loan.

If we take into account that the credit line was involved before June 15, i.e. on the day Alen Simonyan submitted a declaration to the Ethics Committee, at least that document (even by confusion as claimed by Alen Simonyan with regard to the car) should have had an indication about the $ 16,000 credit obligation. The declaration mentions a 14 million AMD loan (it was used to buy an apartment).

Taking into consideration the information contained in the NA Vice-President’s declarations, FIP.am team takes note of what Alen Simonyan mentioned live on Facebook, but the claim that there is some false information in the MP’s declarations remains actual (and more substantiated). The editorial board invites Alen Simonyan to a face-to-face interview, which, if desired, will be broadcast without editing on the FIP.am website and the Facebook page.

FIP.am Editorial Board