Jennifer Lopez Concert Organizer Yet to Return $1.4 Million, Receives $9 Million in New Contract

An Armenian company that received nearly $6 million in public funding to organize Jennifer Lopez’s concert in Yerevan has not returned about $1.4 million sought by the government, even as another ministry has awarded the same company roughly $9 million in new contracts for a major international event.

The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports has been seeking the money from Doping Space, the company behind Lopez’s August 2025 concert, for nearly two months. The amount includes more than $1.3 million left from the concert budget, about $20,300 in penalties for late reporting and roughly $63,100 from a separate payment required under the company’s agreement with the government.

The dispute comes after the ministry made several changes to its agreement with Doping Space as the project stretched from 2023 to 2025. Those changes included waiving a bank guarantee that could have been used to recover money from the company and altering provisions tied to penalties for delays.

Despite the unresolved repayment issue, Armenia’s Environment Ministry has since signed contracts worth about $9.1 million with Doping Space to provide services for COP17, scheduled to take place in Yerevan this fall.

The contracts were awarded through a single-source procurement process. Doping Space is expected to organize the event and provide transportation, audiovisual production, advertising, communications and other services.

The government will pay 90% of the contract amount in advance. The remaining 10% is due after the event and the submission of required reports.

Azatutyun, which reported the details of the dispute, said it spent more than a year corresponding with the Education, Science, Culture and Sports Ministry to obtain information about the concert’s actual expenses, Doping Space’s contractual obligations and amendments made to the agreement.

More Than $1.3 Million Remains Unreturned

The government originally allocated nearly $6 million to Doping Space for the concert project.

According to the ministry’s accounting, about $4.72 million in expenses were ultimately accepted following the Lopez concert. That left more than $1.3 million from the allocation subject to repayment.

It remains unclear from the ministry’s response whether the entire amount represents money that was never spent or includes expenses that authorities did not accept as properly documented.

The government is separately seeking about $20,300 in penalties because Doping Space submitted required reports after the deadline. The company also owes approximately $63,100 under a one-time payment obligation included in its contract.

Together, the three amounts total approximately $1.39 million.

The ministry formally sought repayment on June 30. About six weeks later, Doping Space submitted objections challenging the obligation. The ministry said those objections are under review.

Had the government maintained the bank guarantee included in earlier versions of the agreement, the ministry could have sought to recover money through that mechanism. With the guarantee no longer in place, legal action is among the remaining options for recovering the funds.

The project began with a different American star.

In August 2023, the Armenian government allocated nearly $6 million to Doping Space to bring rapper Snoop Dogg to Yerevan.

The decision faced public criticism over the amount of taxpayer money being spent on a concert as the security situation around Nagorno-Karabakh was deteriorating.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan defended the project, presenting the concert as a way to demonstrate Armenia’s resilience.

“No one should think that Armenia does not exist, no one should think that Armenia has been broken, that Armenia has been brought to its knees,” Pashinyan said at the time. “Armenia lives and develops.”

Days later, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. Virtually the entire ethnic Armenian population fled the region for Armenia, and the Snoop Dogg concert was postponed.

Doping Space, however, retained the government funding while discussions continued over when or whether the concert would take place.

The original grant agreement contained significant penalties for delays. For every working day that contractual deadlines were missed, Doping Space was required to pay 0.5% of the allocation — approximately $30,000 per day.

In February 2024, the ministry and Doping Space amended the agreement and set 2024 as the new timeframe for the concert without establishing a specific date.

Snoop Dogg did not perform in Armenia that year either.

By February 2025, Education, Science, Culture and Sports Minister Zhanna Andreasyan said the government had asked the company to return the money and was waiting for its response.

Instead, the project was eventually revived with Jennifer Lopez as the headliner.

Lopez performed at Yerevan’s Republican Stadium on Aug. 3, 2025.

Contract Changes Limited Government’s Options

Before the Lopez concert, the government and Doping Space again changed the agreement governing the project.

Among the changes was the removal of a bank guarantee that could have provided the government with a direct mechanism to recover money if Doping Space failed to meet its obligations.

The agreement also allowed penalties to be deducted from payments still owed to the company. But the government had already transferred the full nearly $6 million allocation to Doping Space in 2023, leaving little money available to withhold.

The potential penalties were substantial.

Based on the contract’s 0.5% daily provision, penalties for delays during the first eight months of 2025 alone would have exceeded $4.3 million if assessed for each applicable working day.

Doping Space did not say whether it paid penalties for the period in which the concert remained delayed. The company told Azatutyun only that it had submitted its financial and substantive reports to the ministry under the required procedures.

The ministry did not explain why it chose not to pursue the full penalties contemplated under the contract.

Asked why the bank guarantee was waived before the money was recovered, the ministry said the amendment was signed two days before the Lopez concert and that there was no longer a need for the guarantee.

Concert Spending Fell Far Below the Original Budget

The final spending figures also show significant gaps between the government-approved budget and what was ultimately spent.

Of the nearly $6 million allocated for the project, the ministry accepted approximately $4.72 million in expenses, leaving more than $1.3 million to be recovered.

Several individual spending categories came in below their approved amounts.

The government budgeted about $314,000 for support staff services, while approximately $273,000 was ultimately spent.

Other services included in the budget were not used at all. Among them were approximately $6,500 for a transportation operations manager and about $3,400 for an employee assigned to receive the artist.

Another $23,400 allocated for stage and stage equipment went unspent, along with about $39,700 for concert equipment and approximately $81,000 for marketing.

Nearly $10,000 had also been budgeted to provide food for dressing-room staff. No spending was reported in that category.

The $1.3 million difference represents roughly 22% of the government’s original allocation.

Doping Space Says Concert Brought Economic Benefits

Doping Space did not answer Azatutyun’s questions about the outstanding payments, penalties or whether it intends to return the money.

Company director Hayk Simonyan defended the government-backed concert during an April 2026 appearance on Armenia’s Public Television.

Simonyan said nearly half of the money provided to the company had ultimately gone back to the state through taxes. He also argued that spending by visitors generated economic benefits exceeding the government’s investment.

“I would not consider the concert expensive,” Simonyan said. “I would say it had a high cost, but most importantly, it was justified.”

Doping Space’s 2025 financial statements are not available on its website, making it unclear how much revenue the company generated from ticket sales for the Lopez concert.

The dispute over the concert funding has not prevented Doping Space from securing another major government-backed project.

The Environment Ministry has signed contracts totaling about $9.1 million with the company for COP17 in Yerevan.

Doping Space will provide event organization, transportation, audiovisual and advertising services, communications and other goods and services.

The contracts were awarded through a single-source procurement process, with 90% of the money to be paid before the event takes place.

Doping Space was founded in 2023, about a month before the government approved funding for the Snoop Dogg concert.

Its original shareholder was Makar Petrosyan, the son of businessman Aleksan Petrosyan, founder of MAP and a former Republican Party lawmaker. The Petrosyans are involved in proceedings seeking the confiscation of assets authorities allege are of illicit origin.

Five months after Doping Space was established, Makar Petrosyan transferred his entire stake in the company to Hayk Simonyan.

The company is now preparing to handle another multimillion-dollar state-funded event while its previous government-backed project remains the subject of a dispute over approximately $1.4 million in public money.

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