Law enforcement agencies have raided the main office of Russian–Armenian tycoon Smvel Karapetyan’s Tashir Group in Yerevan. The raid was carried out as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of ‘aggravated money laundering, tax evasion, and failure to pay duties or other payments’.
The authorities disclosed the criminal case under which the raids were conducted only hours after they began on Wednesday. According to RFE/RL, the searches lasted for six hours.
The Investigative Committee did not clarify when the criminal proceedings were launched. Instead, Karapetyan’s lawyer Ruben Hakobyan elaborated that the searches were done as part of three criminal proceedings, which according to him were launched in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Karapetyan has been under arrest since late June, accused of calls for usurpation of power. The charges were brought against him following remarks he had made in support of the church amidst ongoing tensions between the government and the church.
‘If the politicians fail, then we will participate in our own way in all of this’ Karapetyan said in an interview with News.am on 17 June, prior to his arrest.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
On Wednesday, law enforcement officers refrained from commenting on what they had confiscated from the office after leaving the building with several bags.
In turn, another of Karapetyan’s lawyers, Armen Feroyan, stated that they confiscated computers and documents.
‘We believe this is a chain of illegalities that was predictable and I believe will continue’, Feroyan said during a press briefing.
Feroyan also said that they would appeal the court’s decision on the raids while declining to provide additional details, citing the secrecy of the preliminary investigation.
In a press briefing earlier on Wednesday morning before the raid took place, a third lawyer working on behalf of Karapetyan, Aram Vardevanyan, called the case against Karapetyan ‘political persecution’.
Armenia’s Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan, according to Vardevanyan, personally filed a report to the Investigative Committee in connection with Karapetyan’s remarks.
‘I myself do not remember such a case where the Prosecutor General themselves filed a report, rather than instituting the prosecution’, Vardevanyan said.
He added that the Prosecutor General’s report was not provided to them and it was unclear to them if Vardapetyan filed that report before or after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's ‘Facebook justice’.
Following Karapetyan’s interview in mid-June, Pashinyan wrote a series of social media posts insulting both the Armenian Apostolic Church and Karapetyan, vowing to ‘deactivate them again. And forever’.
Weeks after Karapetyan’s arrest, Pashinyan called for the establishment of mechanisms or the adoption of legislation that would limit the political activity of foreign nationals in Armenia.
Following this, the ruling Civil Contract party introduced a draft statement on behalf of parliament, declaring the ‘inadmissibility’ of usurping power from the state.
Karapetyan holds Russian citizenship and is a prominent businessperson who built his wealth in Russia. According to TASS, Karapetyan’s fortune ‘is almost comparable to half of the Armenian state budget’, amounting to $3.2 billion.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
