National security chief vows more revelations in anti-corruption sweep
Head of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia Arthur Vanetsyan vows to make new corruption-related revelations.
Reporters spoke to Vanetsyan during today’s Cabinet meeting about the probe into the Yerevan City supermarket chain. Yerevan City is owned by the family of MP Samvel Alexanyan.
Reporters argued that the revelations in Yerevan City supermarket aren’t that much of revelations because the scheme had happened with an agreement with the State Revenue Service (SRC). Vanetsyan responded: “People who’ve acted illegally for many years can say many things. They even manipulated the 350 figure, however the figure exceeded 460. While the number of organizations, which are yet to be questioned, will reach 1000 or more,” he said.
Asked if there is a need to question former SRC chief Vardan Harutyunyan, the NSS director said the investigation will show.
Earlier the NSS had questioned two former vice presidents of the SRC in connection with an alleged corruption scheme involving a customs clearance brokerage firm – Norfolk Consulting. The NSS says the company’s illegal revenues might total nearly 7 million dollars for just 9 months of activities.
A few days ago the NSS carried out inspections in the Yerevan City supermarket chain. The NSS said it has discovered an illicit scheme which the chain used for a lengthy period of time. The mechanism used fraudulent tax records using fake companies under the names of hundreds of unaware citizens.
The NSS says that Alex Holding, the parent company of Yerevan City, had conspired with the former leadership of the State Revenue Committee to use a scheme to pay only 2% circulation tax instead of 20% VAT and income tax.
According to the NSS, Alex Holding had registered more than 461 private entrepreneurship accounts under the names of its personnel and their acquaintances, who were used to be engaged in the scheme.
According to preliminary estimates, the total sales of the 461 accounts totaled more than 40 billion drams.
