TWO ARMENIA OPPOSITION LEADERS SUSPECTED OF MONEY LAUNDERING
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 7 2007
The initiators of the opposition public movement Civil Disobedience,
ex-Vice Prime Minister of Armenia Vagan Shirkhanyan and former
Foreign Minister of the republic Alexander Arzumanyan are figuring in
a criminal case of money laundering, the press centre of the Armenian
National Security Service reported on Monday.
The Security Service officers found out in a special search operation
that the above persons when they were in Moscow on April 24-26
"criminally conspired with Russian citizen Levon Markos who is
wanted in Armenia under a two-year-old criminal case of financial
forgery." They undertook to "transport to Armenia and legalise money
sums of dubious origin," according to the press service.
According to the Armenia Security Service officials, Markos "is
pursuing certain ends in the pre-election period in Armenia and hopes
to accomplish them."
The Security Service registered, in particular, that on April 27,
the Converse Bank in Yerevan transferred by instalments to accounts
in the name of nine front men from Moscow a sum worth 180,000 US
dollars that actually was meant for Shirkhanyan and Arzumanyan.
During searches of their flats within the framework of the opened
criminal case on May 5 operatives found major sums of foreign
currency. During interrogation the former Armenian foreign minister
refused to give evidence regarding the origin and intended use of
the sum of 55,400 dollars confiscated during the search.
The Armenian parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 12.