Armenian Opposition Leader Gagik Tsarukyan Detained on Fraud and Money Laundering Charges After Raids on More Than 70 Properties

Armenian opposition leader and businessman Gagik Tsarukyan was detained  Monday after security forces searched his home and dozens of properties tied to his business empire, in one of the broadest law enforcement actions against a political figure since last month’s parliamentary elections.

Tsarukyan, the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party and the businessman behind Armenia’s massive Jesus Christ statue project, was taken into custody after investigators spent nearly 12 hours searching his mansion north of Yerevan. He was charged with fraud and money laundering.

The Investigative Committee said authorities searched more than 70 locations as part of over a dozen criminal cases. Masked National Security Service officers carrying assault rifles were seen during the operation, which also involved police and tax officials.

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Investigators accused Tsarukyan of leading a criminal group that misappropriated about $22 million in fuel, transport equipment and other goods supplied by Iranian business partners from 2022 to 2024.

His lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, rejected the charge as “ridiculous and absurd.” He said Tsarukyan was the victim of fraud by the Iranian side and had reported the matter to law enforcement himself.

Authorities also moved against Tsarukyan’s Multi Group conglomerate, sealing offices at several of its largest companies. The businesses include Armenia’s biggest cement plant, a brandy distillery, a quarry, and sports and entertainment facilities. Their operations were left suspended, and thousands of employees were reportedly sent home.

Artyom Poghosyan, acting director of the cement plant in Ararat, said officers did not seize anything during the search but still sealed the administrative building.

“They have paralyzed the work of the plant employing more than 1,000 people,” Poghosyan told Kentron TV.

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Tsarukyan’s spokeswoman, Iveta Tonoyan, said security forces also sealed the headquarters of the Armenian National Olympic Committee, which Tsarukyan heads.

“This is an international disgrace,” Tonoyan told reporters. “It will damage Armenia’s international reputation because there has been no precedent in the civilized world for the suspension of the activities of a national Olympic committee and the sealing of its administrative building.”

The raids followed weeks of public threats by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan against Tsarukyan and other opposition leaders. During the campaign for the June 7 parliamentary elections, Pashinyan said the state would take control of Tsarukyan’s cement plant. After the vote, he repeatedly pledged to jail and “dispossess” his main political opponents.

Tsarukyan was charged with large-scale tax evasion on June 9 and barred from leaving Armenia. His Prosperous Armenia Party had accused the Central Election Commission of unlawfully keeping it out of the new parliament after it narrowly missed the electoral threshold.

Two weeks later, prosecutors asked the commission for permission to bring another charge against Tsarukyan. The details were not made public until Monday.

Tonoyan said the latest raids were politically driven and carried out on Pashinyan’s orders. She said pressure on Tsarukyan had intensified during the election campaign and continued after the vote.

The operation took place as Pashinyan was in Yekaterinburg, Russia, for an international industry forum and talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Russian restrictions on Armenian agricultural imports, introduced before the elections, were expected to be among the issues discussed.

Tsarukyan, who is known for his pro-Russian views, blamed Pashinyan during the campaign for the trade restrictions, saying they were the result of Yerevan’s foreign policy shift toward the West.

Moscow has criticized the proceedings against him. On June 28, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who leads Russia’s ruling United Russia party, said the case signaled “a new round of repression against opposition representatives at odds with the ruling elite.”

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