SARKISIAN’S BROTHER ADMITS BUSINESS INTERESTS ABROAD
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
Oct 3 2005
The older brother of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian insisted on
Monday that he never considered emigrating or hid from anyone during
his prolonged and mysterious absence from Armenia.
Aleksandr Sarkisian, who owns a lucrative business and holds a seat
in the Armenian parliament, also effectively admitted having moved
a considerable part of his assets overseas.
“I’m not the kind of guy who would flee and leave his family behind,”
he told journalists. “I have no reason to be in hiding. My wife and
two sons have been here all the time.”
Sarkisian has spent most of the past year abroad and has not been
seen in public in Armenia for many months. He is known to have lived
for up to six months in Britain and other parts of Western European
and was reportedly in the United States in the last few months.
Sarkisian’s absence prompted far-reaching speculation in the Armenian
press. Some newspapers have alleged that he left the country for good,
fearing retribution for a 2002 murder in Yerevan of a Russian crime
figure of Armenian descent which was linked with his name.
Sarkisian angrily denied such claims. “There is no guy in Armenian
from whom I would run away. You understand?” he said.
Newspapers critical of Armenia’s leadership a have also claimed that
Sarkisian has spent millions of dollars on buying real estate in
Britain and California. “When the value of real property acquired
by him in Los Angeles surpassed 12 million [dollars] he immediately
attracted the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations,”
one of those papers, “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun,” reported on September
16. “They demanded that Sashik Sarkisian present an income and
property declaration, which the National Assembly deputy did, showing
U.S. law-enforcers a $30 million declaration.”
Sarkisian did not deny the report, saying that his visits abroad
“had to do with both my health and business.” But he did not give
details of his overseas business activities.
“We are considered high-level officials and file financial declarations
every year. I have a firm and engage in business. Fifty percent of
the Multi Lion firm is mine,” Sarkisian said, referring to Armenia’s
leading supplier of liquefied gas to households, cars and buses.
The rest of Multi Lion is owned by Gagik Tsarukian, one of Armenia’s
richest men close to President Robert Kocharian and his powerful
defense minister. It is part of Tsarukian’s Multi Group conglomerate
that comprises over 40 big and medium-sized businesses. Despite being
lucrative, the vast majority of them were not included in the list
of the country’s leading corporate taxpayers released by the Armenian
government earlier this year.