YEREVAN. – Armenia’s National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday continues its special hearing on Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan’s formal petition to include The Civilitas Foundation founder, former FM, and currently Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP Vartan Oskanian as a defendant in a criminal lawsuit. 

To note, the aforesaid petition’s discussion commenced on Monday, during which NA PAP Faction Secretary Naira Zohrabyan called upon her colleagues not to take part in its voting, and opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party Faction representatives complied with this request. Zohrabyan stated that the PAP Faction will boycott the voting of this matter and the NA sessions, and the ARF representatives informed that they will vote against it. Ruling Republican Party’s NA Faction leader Galust Sahakyan, on the other hand, noted that the party plans to again discuss its position on this matter.      

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, on May 25 the National Security Service (NSS) Department of Investigation filed a criminal lawsuit on charges of money laundering with respect to The Civilitas Foundation.

The NSS Press Center had informed that an investigation is underway in connection with selling the 100-percent shares of the Huntsman Building Products Company for around $2 million, but not informing Armenia’s tax authorities about this business deal; not using for charitable purposes $1,135,000 of that amount envisioned for charity; transferring this amount to the bank accounts opened under the names of the Civilitas Foundation’s founder Vartan Oskanian,  and of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees member Tigran Karapetyan; and using some of this amount for private purposes.

In addition, as per the NSS Press Center, The Civilitas Foundation had not presented a report on the $2 million allocated for charitable purposes.