The luxurious American villa, owned by the family of former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia (2008-2014), former Minister of Finance (2014-2016) Gagik Khachatryan, has again become the center of attention of the world community. The reason for this was the process of its confiscation initiated by the American authorities. The US Department of Justice stated that the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Security Service of Armenia provided them with decisive assistance in this matter.

Recently, Deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia Srbuhi Galyan, speaking in the National Assembly, stated that discussions with the American colleagues on the Khachatryan family case began in 2018-2019, when the Office for the Confiscation of Illegal Property had not yet been established in the Prosecutor General's Office. According to Galyan, within the criminal case, relevant requests were sent to various countries, including the United States, and foreign colleagues expressed their readiness to help law enforcement officers in Armenia. “At the basis of the proceedings initiated by the United States lies a complex of actions of the prosecutor's office,” the Deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia noted.

During the years of Serzh Sargsyan's presidency, Gagik Khachatryan, in particular, since 2008 served as head of the SRC, and in 2014-2016 he headed the department that united the SRC and the Ministry of Finance, which the opposition called "super ministry", and Gagik Khachatryan - "super minister".

A lot has been written about the American real estate of Gagik Khachatryan's family.

Faktyoxla Lab. has tried to find out who Gagik Khachatryan is and thanks to whom he made his billions.

The Armenian media note that in reality the Prosecutor General's Office and the National Security Service of Armenia have known about the property of the Khachatryans since at least 2016.

Back in early July 2016, the Armenian media wrote that the sons of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan, Gurgen (born in 1983) and Artem (born in 1986) in 2010 purchased a luxurious villa in the Westwood area of ​​Los Angeles. At that time, Gagik Khachatryan served as chairman of the State Revenue Committee and was in charge of the tax inspection and the customs service.

Due to the presence of a huge business and real estate worth several million dollars, the press dubbed Gagik Khachatryan a "super minister". They wrote that he is related to numerous companies, which, however, are registered to his relatives: Yukom, Megafood, Apeiron, Megamotors, Megasport, Chronograph, Galaxy Concern, Chimeg and others. The sons of Gurgen and Artem also own the shares of some of these companies. The latter, along with their wives, are registered in different apartments at Teryan 66. This is a house near the Yeritasardakan metro station, on the ground floor of which there is a branch of HSBC bank. However, compared to the mansion at 355 South Mapleton Drive in Los Angeles, the brothers' Yerevan apartments can be called beggarly.

That is, the father at that time successfully robbed Armenia, and the sons led a glamorous life on the money of ordinary Armenians.

After revealing articles, Armenian Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan tried to prove that those millions he gained through honest labor, and real estate acquired abroad is the result of hard work. But he did not succeed, and the desperate minister was forced to resort to the last thing - to start spreading rumors about how patriotic and devoted to his people his sons were. In this matter, he was rendered an invaluable service by pseudo-users of social networks. They flooded Facebook groups and pages with information that allegedly “the sons of Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan really did an important and significant job for Armenia by equipping the front line in Karabakh with the latest generation video cameras, which makes it possible to see online what is happening on the border.” It seemed to sound impressive. This was made even more impressive when the same users wrote: "It is said that the guys invested about $4 million for this purpose."

But again, the question remained unanswered: where did the Khachatryans get these hundreds of millions from?

Further, in early October 2016, Gagik Khachatryan quits and immediately disappears from view. Khachatryan managed to lie low on the bottom so silently that when they remembered him, it was already too late. It turned out that the former minister crossed the state border and fled in an unknown direction.

Accurate information about the whereabouts of Gagik Khachatryan would not be so valuable if some major abuses were not associated with him. In particular, before the resignation, inspections were carried out at the training base of the Ministry of Finance in Dilijan, during which serious violations and abuses worth more than 6 billion drams were discovered. Then it was reported that Gagik Khachatryan was ordered to return the money. However, it turned out that not only Gagik Khachatryan had disappeared, but the hope of compensation for these billions had also disappeared. And then everyone began to wonder - how is it that a suspected person who has financial obligations to the state could leave the country so easily and without hindrance, taking with him enormous wealth.

But already in December 2016, it turned out that the former Minister of Finance of Armenia, Gagik Khachatryan, was outside of Armenia - he fled and took refuge in the United States. It was noted that before the escape, Khachatryan had lost almost all of his assets in Armenia, and henceforth he must be content only with what he managed to take abroad in time.

And the reason for the escape was that a criminal case was initiated in the investigative department of the National Security Service of Armenia, which was based on an audio recording concerning Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan and persons associated with him.

This audio recording then caused a great resonance in the Armenian society. It was, in fact, an anonymous open letter, in which, on behalf of a "group of employees of the Customs Service", the corruption schemes that had been operating for many years in the Customs Service were presented. Specific names were given in the letter, including those of Gagik Khachatryan and his nephew, Karen Khachatryan, who heads the internal security unit of the State Revenue Committee.

Thanks to corruption schemes, millions of dollars were pocketed every month, which, in fact, were supposed to go to the state budget of Armenia.

But the most interesting thing happened in February 2017, when the authorities brought Gagik Khachatryan from abroad and ordered him to work for them during the elections. The fact is that Gagik Khachatryan was born in the village of Amasia, in addition, in Yeghvard (Amasia) he had a large business - greenhouses, a milk production plant and, accordingly, workers. The authorities instructed him to work in this region and collect votes in favor of the Republican Party of Armenia.

That is, he had to spend his own funds, earned at the expense of a business that was in a privileged position in the past, to organize this business.

Already in June 2017, Serzh Sargsyan forced Gagik Khachatryan and his son to go to the occupied territories. There he met with the leader of the separatist formation and discussed issues related to the implementation of supposedly various charitable programs.

The very fact that one of the richest people in Armenia, who had accumulated a colossal fortune for himself and his sons during his long tenure in low-paid positions, whose real estate and movable property was scattered around the world, suddenly decided to become a benefactor, could not but cause surprise. After all, no one had heard of the generosity and material donations of Gagik Khachatryan before.

For this reason, many believed that either there was a case of forced charity, or Gagik Khachatryan was laundering money in the occupied territories, where anything can be done under the guise of a separatist regime.

Interestingly, at the end of July 2017, the daughter of the ex-Minister of Finance of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan married. The wedding ceremony of his daughter and son, the owner of the specialized fur coat store "Ellade" and other stores, was held in the Surb Sarkis church built by Khachatryan in Yeghvard, the wedding banquet was held in the "Florence" restaurant complex, where the betrothal took place in 2015.

The wedding was attended by the entire political elite of the country, headed by Serzh Sargsyan, who remained at the banquet almost until the very end. Also, in attendance was the prime minister, who usually avoids such events and whose first action was to dismiss Gagik Khachatryan as finance minister.

Less than a year after the previous scandals, everything returned to normal. Gagik Khachatryan again has his business running smoothly, and President Serzh Sargsyan is taking part in his daughter’s wedding.

But still, already in August 2019, Gagik Khachatryan was arrested. The former official is accused of abuse of office and embezzlement on an especially large scale. According to one of the episodes of the accusation, in the department headed by Khachatryan, employees were registered who were paid a salary, but who actually did not go to work.

Further, in early February 2020, a new scandal flares up. The Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia wrote a draft resolution proposing to extend the maturity of the debts of Berriutyun JSC Masis Regional Association LLC. In order to provide nitrogen and potash fertilizers to farmers, this LLC took a loan of 3.840 billion drams from the state budget in 2016. The Ministry of Agriculture, instead of thinking about the return of billions, asked to extend the repayment period until April 10, 2020. Then it became known that "Berriutyun" ("Fertility") - is not an easy LLC. This company received a license to supply fertilizers without a tender, and only this company carries out supplies every year. It turned out that the company is associated with the name of the family of the former Minister of Finance of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan.

And, finally, the Armenian media publish the huge size of the amount that the former Super Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan paid for the cancellation of the arrest. They write that there are still reasonable suspicions about who pocketed these millions. Subsequent millions of dollars went through the procedure of acceptance-delivery without much fuss.

By the way, in October 2020, Gagik Khachatryan was released on bail. During the 44 day war...