Belarusian Embassy Involved In Corruption Scandal In Armenia

Local journalists suggest that it could be a “classic” money laundering.

The Belarusian Embassy may be involved in money laundering in Armenia. This is reported by the local media “Platform for checking the facts”, writes the website of the TV channel Belsat.

The Embassy of Belarus in Armenia is the only embassy that is located outside of Yerevan. It moved to the village of Arinj in the Kotayk region in 2014, onto a plot adjacent to the mansion of the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party, major businessman Gagik Tsarukyan.

Belarus acquired the land plot and building from Zhevik Mkrtchyan, who at that time headed the Ar-Beh Armenian-Belarusian trading house. 55% of this company’s shares belong to the Tsarukyan concern Multi Group LLC, and the rest - to the four Belarusian companies of the Belgospishcheprom concern. That is, the Belarusian government paid money for the property to a representative of a concern associated with it.

Moreover, in May 2014, the total cadastral value of the site and buildings was estimated at about $ 95,000. However, in accordance with the contract of July 24, 2014 between Mkrtchyan and Belarus, the Belarusian side paid about $ 2 million for real estate, or 20 times more cadastral value. An independent expert estimated the house and land at a maximum of $ 450,000, or four times less than the money spent.

As for Gagik Tsarukyan, whose house is bordered by the Belarusian embassy, he is a friend of Lukashenkф, who repeatedly met with him in Armenia and even attended the consecration of a church built with the money of the oligarch. In September 2013, Tsarukyan was awarded the Belarusian Order of Friendship of Peoples, and in October 2016, he himself presented four white lions to 12-year-old Mikalai Lukashenka.

In 2012, the Yerevan “Ararat” Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory Gagik Tsarukyan and the Belarustorg State Enterprise founded the Armenian Standard LLC in Minsk.

The embassy of Belarus refused to comment on the reasons and circumstances of the purchase of a plot next to Armenian businessmen. Local journalists suggest that it could be a “classic” money laundering.