Armenia’s State Revenue Committee says it has uncovered the concealment of about 1.3 billion drams in taxable income at Arinj Mall, resulting in nearly 492 million drams in taxes not being assessed or paid to the state budget.
The 12th Division of the department had received operational intelligence indicating that a company operating a shopping center in Kotayk Province was leasing warehouse premises at the retail site without reporting the resulting revenue in tax returns submitted to the tax authority.
According to the same information, in addition to collecting rent for retail spaces, the operator of the retail site also collected additional amounts in cash each month that were not documented in accordance with the procedure established by law and were not included in tax returns submitted to the tax authority.
Department employees conducted comprehensive and extensive operational-search measures, which confirmed the intelligence received. The shopping center’s internal accounting records and information stored on work computers were examined. At the same time, several taxpayers operating in the shopping center were questioned as part of the operational inquiry and provided valuable information.
All the information obtained was thoroughly analyzed and examined, after which the data were compared with information included in the relevant tax returns submitted by the shopping center to the tax authority.
As a result of the operational-search measures, a report concerning an apparent crime under the relevant article of Armenia’s Criminal Code was submitted to the Investigative Committee’s General Department for Investigation of Economic Crimes and Smuggling, where criminal proceedings were initiated.
During the measures conducted at the company, employees of the Department of Investigation and Operational Intelligence and the Tax Inspectorate-Department for Current Control of Taxpayers also monitored the ongoing activities of stores operating in the shopping center. Notably, during those days, the stores’ total fiscal turnover rose sharply by about 110% compared with comparable days in the previous period.
Starting early on July 6, employees of the National Security Service, State Revenue Committee and Interior Ministry Police carried out simultaneous searches at more than 70 addresses, including Tsarukyan’s mansion and companies belonging to him. Tsarukyan was detained. Starting early on July 7, a court of general jurisdiction for the Avan and Nor Nork administrative districts considered the issue of Tsarukyan’s preventive measure. By the end of the day, it became known that he had been remanded in custody for two months.
