Indicted Ex-Minister Suspects Retribution For ‘Conflicts’ With Other Officials

· July 3, 2024

• Karlen Aslanian

RFE/RL Armenian Service

Vahan Kerobian, a former economy minister facing corruption charges, on Tuesday insisted on his innocence and said he may have been prosecuted because of his “conflicts” with other senior officials, notably the chief of Armenia’s most powerful security service.

Kerobian suggested that they developed a “special attitude towards me” after he repeatedly declined personal favors requested by them.

“Conflicts became quite frequent in the last year [of my tenure,] and I was quite intransigent in cases where I thought making concessions would mean deviating from my principles,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in an interview.

Asked whether he believes that is the main reason for the charges levelled against him, he said: “I don’t know but I don’t rule that out either, so to speak.”

Kerobian was forced to resign on February 14 two days before being charged with abuse of power and put under house arrest. The accusations stem from a procurement tender organized by the Armenian Ministry of Economy last year.

A court in Yerevan invalidated in June 2023 the ministry’s decision to declare a major software company, Synergy International Systems, the winner of the tender. Armenia’s Investigative Committee says that Kerobian and other ministry officials rigged the tender in a bid to grant a $1 million procurement contract to Synergy “at any cost.”

Also indicted were seven other individuals, including Synergy’s founder and owner Ashot Hovanesian. In early June, Armenian prosecutors dropped the charges against all suspects except Kerobian and Hovanesian. Both men continue to strongly deny any wrongdoing.

“The ‘evidence’ upon which this accusation is based does not meet the minimum standards required by both [Armenian] law and international conventions,” said Kerobian, who was released from house arrest later in June. He insisted that the procurement tender was fair and that the resulting criminal case is “not about revealing the truth.”

The ex-minister last week linked the case to his “problems” with various senior officials and National Security Service Director Armen Abazian in particular. He said that he had repeatedly rejected Abazian’s requests to “appoint someone to some position.” An NSS spokesperson flatly denied the claim.

“Mr. Abazian can check his phone and see that I am right, if he has forgotten,” Kerobian countered on Tuesday. He said that other members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government asked him for similar favors.

Kerobian remained careful not to directly or indirectly accuse Pashinian of ordering the criminal proceedings against him. He said he does not regret accepting Pashinian’s offer to become economy minister which was made in November 2020 in the wake of Armenia’s disastrous war with Azerbaijan.

Still, he made clear that he no longer regards himself as an “active member” of Pashinian’s political team. At the same time, he ruled out joining the Armenian opposition or “engaging in active politics” otherwise.

Prior to joining the government, Kerobian, 47, was the chief executive of a food delivery company which he had set up with his wife and a friend. He had previously managed an Armenian supermarket chain that went bankrupt before being purchased and rebranded by other investors.