Kerobian was forced to resign on February 14 two days before 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.
An Armenian court invalidated in June the ministry’s decision to declare a major software company, Synergy International Systems, the winner of the tender. The decision followed a lawsuit filed by another bidder that set a much smaller price for its services.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee says that Kerobian and four other ministry officials rigged the tender in a bid to grant a $1 million procurement contract to Synergy “at any cost.” The former minister denied that even before being charged in the high-profile case. The U.S.-registered company, whose owner Ashot Hovanesian was also indicted in the probe, denies the claims too.
Kerobian’s lawyer, Tigran Yegorian, scoffed at the continuing investigation conducted by the law-enforcement agency. He said that its results backed up by compelling evidence are “pretty close to zero.”
“There is just no substantive material which could make use believe that people want to thoroughly investigate and find out what really happened,” Yegorian told a news conference. “This is not an investigation, to put it mildly. This looks more like a congregation propagating its beliefs through documents and written work.”
The Investigative Committee has yet to publicly give any reasons for the allegedly privileged treatment of Synergy. None of the indicted officials has been charged with bribery or embezzlement of public funds.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian effectively defended the corruption probe when he introduced Kerobian’s successor, Gevorg Papoyan, to senior Ministry of Economy staff on Thursday.
“I am sure that the investigation into the matter will be completely objective and we will have answers to all questions,” Pashinian said.