Following a series of raids conducted across Armenia on Thursday, 37 people have been placed under investigation as part of a criminal case against Alik Aleksanyan, a senior member of Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia alliance.
Armenian authorities accuse Aleksanyan of money laundering and of paying people to attend political rallies affiliated with Karapetyan or his alliance.
According to the investigation, the 37 individuals are suspected of ‘assisting’ Aleksanyan in ‘materially motivating numerous citizens to take part in rallies in 2025–2026, as well as committing money laundering in a particularly large amount with prior agreement’ with him.
Prosecutors have submitted motions seeking their arrest.
The investigation follows widespread raids since early Thursday morning carried out at more than 50 locations across Armenia over the alleged ‘financial inducement of numerous individuals and large-scale money laundering’.
The Investigative Committee said that officers seized ‘lists on distributing money to numerous people, contact details of persons with Armenian citizenship and the right to vote, recruiting citizens, and documents reporting on “charities” performed by specific individuals’.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Earlier this week, Aleksanyan was remanded to pre-trial detention for two months. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.
Aleksanyan, who has featured prominently in Strong Armenia’s election campaign, was reportedly excluded from the party list because Armenia prohibits dual citizens from serving as MPs.
His criminal case comes days before the 7 June parliamentary elections, and takes place amidst dozens of investigations launched by Armenian authorities in recent months into alleged vote-buying, prohibited charitable activity during the election campaign, and payments allegedly made to people for attending rallies linked to Karapetyan and his political bloc.
‘They are committing another act of stupidity, another unlawful action. There isn’t a single person on our team who would even know how to launder money’, Karapetyan said in a press briefing following Aleksanyan’s arrest.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
Karapetyan himself was charged with money laundering in July 2025, which came on top of earlier charges of calling for the seizure of power from the state.
Separately, Armenian authorities arrested more affiliates of Strong Armenia and the previous president, Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance, over alleged vote-buying.
