By Mark Dovich
Prosecutors have still not charged anyone with a crime in connection with the collapse earlier this year of Armenia’s state investment fund, even as investigators continue to work on the case, the local news outlet Fact Investigation Platform reported Tuesday.
“A number of individuals have been questioned, and a number of evidentiary actions have been carried out,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in response to an inquiry from Fact Investigation Platform. “At the moment, no criminal prosecution has been initiated against any individual. The investigation is ongoing.”
The agency did not provide any additional information.
What’s the context?
Reports of mismanagement at the Armenian National Interests Fund, a state-owned enterprise meant to work on major projects alongside foreign investors, began spreading at the beginning of the year.
Pressure on officials to take action escalated sharply in March, when it came to light that Fly Arna, Armenia’s national airline and ANIF’s flagship co-investment with the Emirati low-cost carrier Air Arabia, had come to the brink of financial collapse.
By April, Armenia’s investigative authorities had already opened a criminal probe into ANIF’s dealings, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan moved to dissolve the agency the following month.
Tigran Avinyan, who now serves as Yerevan’s mayor, served as chairman of ANIF’s board of directors for the majority of the agency’s existence. Avinyan has denied any wrongdoing.
ANIF’s collapse has left the government footing a bill of at least $3.1 million, according to cabinet documents obtained and reviewed by CivilNet last month.
What’s the background?
Over the course of its six years of operations, ANIF used nearly $19 million in taxpayer money for investments in projects that ultimately stalled or failed, according to those documents. By the end, ANIF’s accounts receivable topped $22.5 million.
In addition, ANIF owned some 1,350 acres of land in Armenia’s western Aragatsotn region, plus fixed assets worth nearly $56,000. Those assets have now been handed over to the State Property Management Committee, a body within the Infrastructure Ministry.
Aside from Fly Arna, ANIF’s projects also included the construction of a massive solar power plant in Aragatsotn, a joint venture with Masdar, the Emirati state-owned renewable energy company, that never got off the ground.
Officials at Armenia’s Economy Ministry have since scrambled to salvage the project, though negotiations with Masdar remain ongoing, and as of now, the ultimate fate of that venture remains unclear.
Read more: Armenia in talks with UAE’s Masdar as ANIF dissolution derails solar plant plans
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