Robert Kocharyan Detained Hours After Pashinyan Vows Family’s Wealth ‘Must Be Returned’

Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan and his eldest son, Sedrak Kocharyan, were detained Tuesday in a sweeping corruption investigation, less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stood in parliament and publicly challenged the source of the Kocharyan family’s wealth.

The timing puts one of Armenia’s most prominent political families at the center of a case involving allegations of bribery, the acquisition of state property at below-market prices and financial transfers worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Kocharyan, who served as president from 1998 to 2008, was taken to Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee early Aug. 25. The committee later confirmed that six people had been detained in the case, including Kocharyan, his son and others investigators say were involved in the alleged schemes.

Kocharyan’s attorney, Aram Orbelyan, told reporters that authorities detained the former president so he could be brought before a court and that investigators are expected to seek his pretrial detention.

Orbelyan said Kocharyan has been charged over matters involving government decisions made during his presidency.

The Anti-Corruption Committee says the investigation centers on allegations that Kocharyan used his office, working with people close to him, to acquire valuable state-owned properties through arrangements that allowed them to be purchased at prices far below their market value.

Investigators allege some of those assets were placed under the control of affiliated companies before being developed, sold or transferred. Authorities say ownership was at times registered to members of Kocharyan’s family or companies linked to them in an effort to conceal who ultimately controlled the properties.

The case reaches across several well-known properties and businesses in Yerevan.

One allegation concerns 8.3 hectares of land near Acharyan and Tsarav Aghbyur streets. Investigators say the property was acquired for about 45 million drams and later became the site of the Play City entertainment center, built in 2002. Two years later, according to the committee, a 50% stake in the company that owned the property was transferred as a gift and registered to one of Kocharyan’s sons.

Another part of the case involves 2 hectares near Yerevan’s Cascade complex. The committee says the land was acquired for about 40 million drams, then exchanged for a state-owned parcel of the same size in a more valuable part of the capital. That property was later sold for 1.742 billion drams (about $4.8 million), investigators say.

Authorities are also examining a property at 8 Paronyan St., acquired for 40 million drams (about $110,000). After an apartment building was constructed there, investigators say about 600 square meters of commercial space valued at 332 million drams (about $915,000), along with two parking spaces, were registered to Kocharyan’s son through transactions the committee alleges were fictitious.

The investigation extends outside Yerevan.

In Gegharkunik province, the Kaputak Sevan resort complex was acquired for about 84 million drams (about $230,000), according to the committee. Investigators say a 50% stake in Art Build, the company that owned the resort, was later registered to Kocharyan’s son through what authorities describe as a sham transaction.

Another property cited by investigators is on Tsitsernakaberd Highway, where Orange Fitness was later built. The committee says a 29,000-square-meter plot and a 1,700-square-meter building belonging to a state sports organization were acquired for more than 12 million drams (about $33,000). A 50% stake in the company controlling the property was later registered to a company founded by Kocharyan’s son, investigators allege.

The committee has also accused Kocharyan of receiving 56 properties worth a combined 2.633 billion drams (about $7.2 million) as a bribe in connection with the transfer of state assets, including the historic Officers’ House building on Vazgen Sargsyan Street and an unfinished building on Nalbandyan Street.

Investigators allege the properties were subsequently registered to Kocharyan family members and affiliated organizations through transactions intended to hide their true ownership and origin.

A separate episode involves Defense Ministry land on Admiral Isakov Avenue.

According to investigators, property there with a combined market value of nearly 1.394 billion drams (about $3.8 million) was sold to a company owned by a person close to Kocharyan for roughly one-quarter of its market value.

The committee alleges that in exchange for the discounted land sale and assistance in establishing Japanese automaker Toyota’s representation in Armenia, the person serving as president at the time received a 30% stake in Toyota Yerevan in May 2006 as a bribe. Investigators say the stake was later registered to Kocharyan’s son through transactions designed to conceal its origin.

The scope of the investigation goes beyond real estate.

Authorities say they are examining financial transfers made in the name of Kocharyan’s son between 2001 and 2019 totaling about 144 billion drams (about $394 million), $309 million, 77 million euros and 18 million Russian rubles.

Investigators are also reviewing how more than 30 properties in Armenia and abroad were acquired by people connected to the case and members of their families. The committee said authorities have moved to freeze assets to prevent them from being sold or transferred while the investigation continues.

Tuesday’s operation unfolded at several locations.

As Kocharyan was taken to the Anti-Corruption Committee, authorities searched the home of another of his sons, Levon Kocharyan, an opposition lawmaker from the Armenia Alliance faction.

Tax authorities also sealed Toyota’s Yerevan office. Investigative actions were reported at Orange Fitness and Play City, as well as at the homes of their directors.

The detentions came a day after a tense exchange between Levon Kocharyan and Pashinyan during debate in the National Assembly, giving the case an immediate political dimension.

Levon Kocharyan accused Pashinyan of doing precisely what the government has denied it does: using political authority to signal how courts and investigators should act.

“If the prime minister of the country says this person must go to prison and this person must be stripped of his property, that is a political order,” Kocharyan said. “That is not normal.”

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He argued that such statements were incompatible with European democratic standards and amounted to pressure on institutions that should operate independently.

Pashinyan responded by turning the debate toward the Kocharyan family’s wealth.

“Why are you a millionaire? How did you become a millionaire? How did your family become millionaires?” Pashinyan asked.

He told Kocharyan that his family’s property holdings could be seen across Yerevan and demanded an explanation for how the wealth had been accumulated.

“You were in power for 10 years. I have already been prime minister for more than eight years. Why am I not a millionaire, while you are?” Pashinyan said. “Where did that property come from?”

The prime minister then made clear that he viewed the recovery of wealth he believes was accumulated at the public’s expense as part of his political mandate.

“My problem is not that someone is a millionaire,” Pashinyan said. “My problem is when someone is a millionaire at the expense of our people.”

“Everything, piece by piece, must be returned to the Republic of Armenia,” he added.

Levon Kocharyan pushed back, saying it was for a court — not the prime minister — to decide whether property had been obtained unlawfully and should be returned to the state.

“When you stand at the country’s highest podium and say, ‘You will not be able to inherit this,’ while at the same time there is a case before a court, that is direct pressure on the court,” he said.

Pashinyan ended the exchange with a passage from the New Testament: “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.”

He then applied the passage to himself.

“Yes, I am judging you,” Pashinyan said, “and I am prepared to be judged by the same standard.”

By the following morning, Robert and Sedrak Kocharyan were in custody, searches were underway and investigators had publicly laid out allegations covering years of property transactions and financial activity.

The Anti-Corruption Committee’s claims are allegations and have not been proven in court. Kocharyan and the other people detained in the case are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

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