YEREVAN. – Director of Hayastan All Armenian Fund Ara Vardanyan was detained on suspicion of embezzlement and abuse of power.

Under pressure, Vardanyan confessed to using the 25 million dram worth credit card provided to the fund for personal purposes, and for gambling, National Security Service (NSS) reported.

The funds that he spent were returned at the expense of the amounts donated to the fund, Vardanyan said.

In the past week alone, Vardanyan transferred about 14 million drams ($29,000) from a bank card of the fund to online casinos. Meanwhile , the amount totaled about 130 million drams in the period from 2016 to 2018.

NSS is holding inspections win the Hayastan Fund to disclose possible embezzlement and verify the legality of its expenditures.