Armenia’s Investigative Committee has launched criminal proceedings based on an April 17 Hetq article revealing that four former high-ranking Armenian officials and their relatives failed to declare their expensive properties in Dubai.

The four officials are former Mayor of Yerevan and Minister of Transport and Communications Gagik Beglaryan, his brother Hakob Beglaryan (a former Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of Urban Development and then MP), as well as former MPs Samvel Aleksanyan and Hrant Davtyan.

In the summer of 2018, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published Dubai’s Golden Sands, an extensive report on Dubai and its booming real estate market. The report describes Dubai as “a one-stop shop where the world’s wealthy can avoid taxes, dodge sanctions, launder money, or hide their assets from police or taxpayers back home.”

On examining the data, Hetq, the OCCRP’s Armenian partner, found real estate transactions associated with several current and former Armenian officials and businesspeople, raising questions about how some of them can afford such expensive property. The list also includes individuals who have played important roles in Armenia’s economy.

See: Former Armenian Officials Have Not Declared Dubai Apartments;

Wealthy Armenians Join the Dubai Land Rush