Although a number of families have been accusing Hovhannes Yeritsyan, the former chief of the Armenian Civil Aviation Department, of usury, fraud, and addressing life threats, the RA Prosecutor’s Office simply refuses to investigate any case that may result in an accusation against a former official.

One of the appealers, who filed a complaint against Yeritsyan, is a former businessman, David Stepanyan, who claims he took $ 900,000 dollars from the former official and paid him back nearly $ 2 million dollars, but the latter did not pay any taxes from the income. The prosecutor Narek Khachatryan thinks that the former chief of the RA Civil Aviation Department Hovhannes Yeritsyan is not an economic entity, consequently the question of the tax evasion by him has not been subject to investigation by the preliminary investigation body.

And where from the former official has got so much money, here is what the preliminary investigation body “has found out”: “During the preliminary investigation Hovhannes Yeritsyan testified that he had worked in different countries, also in Canada and Australia, for about ten years, and his annual wages made about $ 150.000 dollars”, declared the prosecutor.

Davit Stepanyan’s assignee Marina Poghosyan, the president of the “Veles” human rights defender non-governmental organization, raised the question whether the testimony of Yeritsyan on having worked abroad was verified by the preliminary investigation body. “Unlike you, we have checked and found out that Yeritsyan was mostly in Armenia during the past 10-15 years. If the man had worked abroad, he could have submitted documents, including that on the size of the wages”, Poghosyan mentioned. The question was not answered.

The judge of the Court of Appeal, Papoyan, asked the prosecutor whether any legal assessment on money gain, money laundering, illegal entrepreneurship, and the tax evasion was given at the preliminary investigation stage. The prosecutor mentioned that no criminal prosecution was carried out at the stage of preliminary investigation, as there was not any ground for that.

Let us remind that David Stepanyan presented a report on crime from abroad, which said that Yeritsyan had been threatening him, so he had to leave Armenia. Stepanyan submitted to the preliminary investigation body a recording which can read how the former official demanded money from him, saying that otherwise “blood could be shed”. The criminal case was quashed shortly afterwards.

David Stepanyan appealed the decision on the quash of the criminal case. The Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of General Jurisdiction satisfied the appeal. The Prosecutor’s Office did not put up with the defeat and appealed the decision. However, the Court of Appeal refused the prosecutor’s appeal, leaving in force the decision of the Court of General Jurisdiction. The prosecutor filed a complaint to the Court of Cassation.

It is worth mentioning that the former official has not ever presented himself in any court session; instead the Prosecutor’s Office has been doing their best to defend his interests.

We would like to mention that we managed to contact a family who moved to the Russian Federation, and who had to sell everything in Armenia in order to pay the interests on the borrowed money. David Stepanyan told the “Arajin TV” news agency that he first met Hovhannes Yeritsyan in 2001 when he headed the Civil Aviation of Armenia. Stepanyan had foreign currency exchange offices in Yerevan and asked for money from Hovhannes Yeritsyan in order to invest in business. “I took $ 150.000 dollars with 2% per month. Then I took some again and the debt slowly became $ 900,000 dollars. I paid more than $ 2 million dollars within 10 years”, Stepanyan assures.

During these years Stepanyan has been deprived of both family business and his and his mother’s apartments. “I pledged apartments, paid $ 500.000 dollars to him, but I did not take any receipt from him; our families were in close relations. But now Yeritsyan says as if I should have to pay him  900.000 dollars”, tells David Stepanyan.

In 2015 Hovhannes Yeritsyan applied to the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Districts, demanding to levy money from David Stepanyan and his wife. The former official informed the court that in 2010 the defendants were lent a loan of 360 million Armenian drams. “Those 360 million made $ 900.000 dollars by the rate of that time. I was obliged to pay that much by a notary”, says David Stepanyan.

The court decided to confiscate in favor of Hovhannes Yeritsyan 250.000.000 (two hundred fifty million) Armenian drams from David Stepanyan and Gayane Abgaryan, through a coherence order. According to Stepanyan, five years ago he had a severe depression, and he is still unable to get rid of it. The former businessman assures that Hovhannes Yeritsyan has been threatening and intimidating him for years.

Hovhannes Yeritsyan denies not only David Stepanyan’s accusations, but also the charges submitted against him by other families, stating that he has not made any illegal deal.

Author: Arman Gharibyan

http://www.1in.am/2213442.html