YEREVAN. – Armenian businessman Ashot Sukiasyan, who is involved in an offshore scandal, has been arrested on Thursday. 

The respective court hearing was held at 4:30pm, the Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the Kentron and Nork Marash General Jurisdiction Court in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan. 

The court set arrest as Sukiasyan’s restraining order and, as a result, he was taken to a Yerevan prison.  

On June 4, the Georgian justice minister had signed the document to extradite Ashot Sukiasyan to Armenia.  

Sukiasyan was caught on January 31 in the Georgian capital city Tbilisi, and with the assistance of the Interpol National Central Bureau in Armenia and as a result of cooperation with the Georgian law enforcement.

The aforesaid offshore scandal broke out after an Armenian media outlet wrote that Armenia’s then-PM Tigran Sargsyan, Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan—Vicar General of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church—, and “jeweler” Ashot Sukiasyan are shareholders in an offshore company called Wlispera Holdings Limited, which is registered in Cyprus. Sargsyan and Kjoyan, however, denied their involvement in such a company.

The Armenian General Investigation Department had laid charges on Sukiasyan, and on the grounds of committing fraud, causing property damage, and legalizing criminally-earned income. Arrest was set as his restraining order.