YEREVAN. – The statement made by the head of Hayastan All Armenian Fund Ara Vardanyan that he returned the finds he misused with the help of Fund's credit card will be checked, director of Armenia's National Security Service Arthur Vanetsyan said.

“Vardanyan said the money was returned, but we will conduct an investigation to make it clear. I cannot give a precise answer to your questions. However, there are clear reports that 130 million drams was withdrawn from the account to be used in a casino,” Vanetsyan said, adding that the fact of using a credit is criminally liable.

According to earlier reports, Vardanyan confessed to using the 25 million dram worth credit card provided to the fund for personal purposes, and for gambling. 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.