Several days ago businesswoman Silva Hambardzumyan made announcements during a meeting with journalists, which concerned the governor of Syunik region Surik Khachatryan. According to the businesswoman, the governor has stolen facilities worth of 102 million from her Sipan 1 company. “As many facilities were missing from the Sipan 1 company, in 2009 we applied to the general prosecutor to control the processes in the company and discover robberies. As a result of checking up the balance of the company, it turned out that facilities worth of 102 million drams had been stolen from the company and were in the mines that belong to Suren Khachatryan. By the way, the latter has bought properties worth of 240 million drams from Sipan 1 company by paying 15 million drams only, but the facilities that were worth of 102 million were not there and were missing in the lists,” said S. Hambardzumyan in an interview given to our newspaper. In answer to our question whether the governor’s company had stolen her property the businesswoman said, “The property is in the mines of the governor and is being used, we have informed the police and law-enforcement bodies, but there are no results so far and the properties are still in Geghva Dzor mines that belongs to him.”
However, the governor of Syunik region is so much insulted by the announcements of the businesswoman that is going to sue her in the court. We asked several questions to the governor to find out the reasons why he wanted to bring a case against the businesswoman. “You are a journalist. Have you read it? Is it an announcement of a human being?” said the governor. In answer to our question how he had acquired that property the governor said, “It was not me that bought it but the company did it with documentation and everything, and the money was transferred to their account, I mean a part of the money was covered with bank transfer and the other part I gave in cash. She has no relation to it now.” In answer to our question what that company was the governor said, “It was an Australian company and the director was Suren, who is a guy from Yerevan. We bought the facilities from them.” We asked whether they had bought it from Iberian Resources company, in answer to which he said, “No, it was Sipan company as far as I remember” said the governor.
Even though the governor did not remember the name of the company, he said how much money he had paid for acquiring the property. “We made a bank transfer of 240 million drams, and gave 300,000 in cash,” he said. The governor says that he has met the businesswoman several times, and specifically he met with that woman in summer. In answer to our statement that according to the businesswoman, the governor has offered her 100k dollars to close the issue of the stolen property he said, “Let her shut up. We will speak about that tomorrow. She is not speaking the truth. Don’t you see that she is a blackmailer?” The governor failed to give us documented proofs about his opinion and said that he would give a press conference on the next day and turned the phone off.
“Maybe Surik Khachatryan has forgotten that he has met with him. He said to me if I am the one involved in that story, he could give me 100k dollars to close the case. I told him that I was not a beggar and I wanted either my property or the equivalent money. You can ask investigator Tumaghanyan Andranik, take all documents, with which even they have pledged that property of the governor and told him that he did not have the right to sell that property. You can also ask the controller prosecutor of the general prosecutor’s office Sargsyan Harutyun. You can ask for information from them. If you do that, the governor of Syunik will lose his reputation,” said Silva Hambardzumyan during our phone conversation. In answer to our question why the governor wanted to sue the businesswoman she said, “He wants to say and show one more time that he is the governor… But we have documents provided by the investigator, which show where our properties are now. We have proofs. I don’t have problems; if the governor applies to court, it will be against his reputation only. I want him very much to apply to court and lose his reputation as we have facts.” By the way, S. Hambardzumyan has applied to the general prosecutor’s office with a compliant concerning the loss of her property and the investigator in charge of the case was Andranik Tumaghanyan, and as a result it turned out that properties worth of 508 million drams had disappeared from her company.
We tried to ask for some information concerning the mentioned case. The general prosecutor’s spokeswoman Sona Truzyan informed us that we could get that information from the police. We tried to contact the investigator, Andranik Tumaghanyan, but we were informed that he had been called to the prosecutor’s office urgently and was not available. By the way, several days ago the general prosecutor’s office paid attention to S. Hambardzumyan’s publication s a result of monitoring of the daily media coverage and sent these materials to the special investigation department for checking and investigating in the manner established by the law, and also instructed to pay attention that the publication had contained materials of crime as the woman had informed names and facts. By the way, the spokesman of Syunik governor, Ashot Karamyan said that he had nothing to say concerning the accusation of the businesswoman against the governor. He said to journalists that he was not informed of it and could not say anything concerning the mentioned matter.