Former chief of Serzh Sargsyan's security accused of extortion

A criminal case has been initiated against the ex-head of security of the third president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan - Vachagan Ghazaryan, his wife and the director of the Yans club they own, on charges of extortion with the threat of violence. On the basis of a criminal case, a written undertaking not to leave the country was chosen as a preventive measure, Report informs via Armenian media.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia reported that at present, in order to fully clarify the circumstances of the alleged crime, investigative and evidentiary actions are being carried out.

The prosecutor's office also noted the details of the criminal history. By the way, we wrote about it back in 2019.

According to law enforcement officers, in 2017 the director found out that the accountant Susanna Aristakesyan did not pay the amount received from the visitors to the cash desk, and informed the actual owner of the establishment, Kazaryan and his wife, about this. Despite the fact that it was only about 40,000 drams, which the accountant allegedly did not pay to the cash register, the spouses decided to take 40 million drams (about $100,000 at the current exchange rate) from the woman by threats.

Kazarian was detained on June 25, 2018, when he was leaving the bank with a portfolio full of money. They found $123,000 and 436 million drams ($904,000) from him. During a search in his house, they found 35 million drams ($72,500), $1.11 million and 230,500 euros from his wife. And in the Yans Club, owned by Kazarian, over $1.5 million was found in cash. He was arrested and later released on bail. During the investigation period, he returned $5.8 million to the budget.