Armenia to introduce full confiscation of illegally acquired assets

Armenia will abolish the existing settlement mechanism for confiscating assets of illegal origin.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that the mechanism allowed individuals to retain 25 percent of the assets while returning the remaining 75 percent to the state.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters at a briefing that legislative amendments on the matter would be submitted soon.

According to Pashinyan, the existing option has not been used for eight years.

“There will be no more 25 percent. There should not be. We created such an opportunity, but it was not used for eight years. Now they must return 100 percent,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister said that under the new rules, all illegally acquired assets would be confiscated.

He described the approach as “taking everything, starting with illegally acquired shoes.”

Pashinyan also addressed the criminal cases opened against Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, and former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan, as well as the detention measures imposed on them.

The prime minister said he was skeptical about claims concerning the health problems of the individuals involved in the case.

Speaking about Khachatryan’s condition, Pashinyan alleged that he was “simulating” his health problems and said that after the trial ended, he would be able to “walk away, or even run.”

Asset confiscation laws generally seek to recover property that authorities determine was acquired through unlawful means. The proposed change would replace a negotiated partial-return model with a requirement to return the full value of such assets to the state.