A U.S. District court, on July 14, ordered Armenia to pay nearly $439,000 in costs owed to a real estate investor who filed a 2017 case against Armenia at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) claiming that he was swindled by his local business partner in a Yerevan real estate deal and that Armenia’s officials and courts did nothing to investigate and correct the alleged fraud.

The investor in question is Edmond Khudyan, a U.S. citizen who owns Arin Capital Investment LLC. 

In October 2012, Khudyan , a United States citizen, wrote to then U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern asking for the embassy’s assistance in the case.

(See: Alleged Yerevan Real Estate Swindle: Armenia Pays $280,000 to Law Firm for Defense)

In 2017, Kudyan, along with Arin Capital, submitted arbitration claims against the defendant to the ICSID, alleging that the defendant “violated international law by failing to prevent the embezzlement of his investment in a real estate development.”  

Armenia argued that the ICSID did not have jurisdiction over those claims because the plaintiff “was an Armenian citizen and his co-claimant did not invest in the real estate.”  

 On December 15, 2021, an ICSID tribunal “upheld [the defendant’s jurisdictional objections and ordered Kudyan and Arin Capital jointly to reimburse a portion of Armenia’s costs in the arbitration.”

In 2023, the ISCID annulled the tribunal’s decision and awarded Khudyan $438,393 in damages.

Armenia balked at the decision and filed a counterclaim.

The U.S. District Court today found that it must enforce the ISCID award and that Armenia’s counterarguments are invalid.