The committee said urgent investigative and procedural actions, including searches, were carried out at the apartments of Khachatrian and his son, as well as at the offices and branches of about two dozen companies linked to them.
Khachatrian, who served as State Revenue Committee chairman in 2008-2014 and finance minister in 2014-2016 under former President Serzh Sarkisian, is facing new criminal prosecution, according to the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The charges concern alleged bribe-taking, embezzlement, illegal disposal of property, and concealment of the criminal origin of money.
The charges include an allegation that Khachatrian accepted a particularly large bribe from the director of a local property development company in the form of real estate.
Investigators also allege that he embezzled an equivalent of $480,000, among other funds, during budget-financed construction of a training center in the resort town of Dilijan.
Another allegation concerns a scheme involving the illegal disposal of property belonging to Yerevan’s Brusov State University.
Investigators further allege that Khachatrian laundered $415,000, concealing its criminal origin.
Neither Khachatrian nor his legal representatives immediately commented on the new criminal case.
Later on Tuesday, Khachatrian’s legal team released footage of his detention, showing National Security Service officers carrying the 70-year-old man, who appeared to be groaning in pain, from his bed on a stretcher. The footage also showed Khachatrian later lying on a wheeled stretcher in a courtroom where prosecutors’ request to remand him in custody was being heard.
Earlier, the Prosecutor-General’s Office cited an expert assessment stating that Khachatrian “does not have any health problems that could prevent him from participating in any procedural action in the criminal proceedings.”
In a separate case concerning allegedly illicitly acquired assets, the Anti-Corruption Court is considering claims seeking the confiscation from Khachatrian and persons linked to him, including his sons, of 193 pieces of real estate, including 46 apartments in the center of Yerevan and 89 properties in Armenia’s Kotayk Province.
The claims also concern stakes in 29 legal entities, 14 movable assets, bonds worth about $1.45 million, a deposit of about $147,000, claims to loans totaling more than $24 million, as well as a sum in Armenian drams equivalent to about $49 million.
Earlier, in June, the Investigative Committee said former Education Minister Armen Ashotian had arranged for property belonging to Brusov State University to be transferred to Khachatrian and his son. According to investigators, the property, valued at 208 million drams (about $570,000), was initially registered in the name of a person close to the Khachatrian family and was later sold to Khachatrian’s son for 75 million drams (about $205,000) – a price nearly three times below its stated value. Ashotian’s lawyer called the accusation absurd.
In 2024, the U.S. government seized a luxury Los Angeles villa from the sons of Khachatrian, contending it was purchased with bribes paid to their father. The mansion was later sold and, under a deal the Khachatrians negotiated with the U.S. government, part of the $36 million sale proceeds was to be transferred to Armenia.