Prosecution of defendant in case against former Armenian Ambassador  to the Holy See dropped

ArmInfo. The Prosecutor's Office has achieved the restoration of damages caused to the state in the amount of 650,000 US dollars, in connection with which the prosecution of the accused in the case of the former Ambassador of Armenia to the Holy See Mikael Minasyan has been terminated.

As reported by the supervisory authority, within the framework of one  of the criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the Department  for Combating Crimes against Economic Activity of the Prosecutor  General's Office, within the framework of the investigation of the  Investigative Committee it was established that A.T., being the  director of a company engaged in commercial and security printing,  having at his disposal real data on the gross income and taxable  profit of the company for 2014-2016, included distorted data in the  calculations submitted to the tax authority in order to evade paying  taxes on an especially large scale.

In particular, A.T. concluded fictitious contracts for the provision  of services for a total of 2 billion 560 million 765 thousand drams  with an organization actually owned by the former Ambassador  Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the  Holy See M.M. (Mikael Minasyan, son-in-law of the 3rd President of  the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan - ed.). As a result of the  above actions, in order to evade paying income tax on an especially  large scale, he unreasonably understated taxable income, and included  distorted data in the annual calculations for 2014, 2015 and 2016  submitted to the tax authority.

On August 23, 2024, the prosecutor, on his own initiative, initiated  a public criminal prosecution against A.T. under Part 2 of Article  205 of the Criminal Code adopted on 18.04.2003 (failure to submit a  report, calculation, declaration or other mandatory document  establishing the obligation to calculate or pay a tax, duty, other  mandatory payment that is the basis for taxation, in the manner and  within the timeframes established by law).

A.T. was charged. As a result of the preliminary investigation,  damages caused to the state were compensated in the amount of 250  million drams, which is equivalent to 650 thousand US dollars.

On July 28, 2025, the supervising prosecutor, on his own initiative,  terminated the public criminal prosecution initiated against A.T. on  unjustifiable grounds.