Employees Complain of Unpaid Wages, Diaspora Armenian Continues to be Persecuted, Says his Lawyer

All employees of GH Storage Enterprises LLC today complained to the State Revenue Committee (adjunct to the Armenian government), attorney Lernik Hovhannisyan, protecting the interests of company owner Saro Hartounian, informed Epress.am earlier today. The employees complain that they’re not getting paid.

Recall, company president, founder of the Naregatsi Art Institutes in Yerevan and Shushi and Diasporan Armenian Nareg Hartounian is unable to pay his employees’ wages since a Jan. 30, 2012 decision by State Revenue Committee inspector Rafael Mkrtchyan froze the company’s accounts, which means no money can be withdrawn or transferred from the accounts.

The disgruntled employees gathered at the State Revenue Committee today said they wanted to meet with the inspector, but he refused.

Later, another State Revenue Committee representative with the surname Sarikyan met with the employees and said that their not receiving their pay has nothing to do with the freeze on the company accounts.

Recall, tax evasion was the reason the inspector cited for freezing GH Storage Enterprises accounts. Nareg Hartounian, who managed the company belonging to his father Karapet Hartounian, through inaccuracies in calculations allegedly avoided paying taxes to the tune of 25, 278,175 drams (a little over $65,000 USD).

“Nareg Hartounian couldn’t do such a thing since during that time it wasn’t Nareg but Sevak Arzaruni who managed the company,” said the attorney, Lernik Hovhannisyan.

According to him, this is the third time the company’s accounts have been frozen. The first time was a 30-day period in keeping with the law on taxation. Hartounian appealed in court, asking to annul the freeze on the accounts. The court ruled in his favor since the value of the company building was worth ten times more than the judicial act that froze the accounts. The second time was in connection with a criminal case, which is groundless when there is no civil suit.

This ongoing struggle, according to the attorney, proves that Nareg Hartounian continues to be persecuted.