Epress.am News from Armenia
The criminal case launched at the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia (RA) against former CEO of ArmenTel (brand "Beeline") Igor Klimko (pictured), in which he is wanted, has an extremely remarkable backstory, reports local daily Haykakan Zhamanak.
The newspaper notes that ArmenTel received money from foreign operators for servicing telephone calls made to Armenia from abroad. According to the newspaper's information, instead of being deposited into ArmenTel's account, this money was transferred to the account of a registered offshore company. From 2009–2012, when Klimko still headed ArmenTel, hundreds of millions of dollars ($500 million, according to some) "disappeared" this way.
"But the most remarkable thing is that these enormous sums, from which taxes should have been paid, could not disappear unnoticed. Knowing about this were very high-ranking Armenian officials, who even, according to our sources, had a personal interest for those funds to disappear, and this story would've remained undisclosed if those huge sums circulating in offshore zones didn't appear in the spotlight of Western special services and if the current ArmenTel owner, the Russian Beeline company, was not consistent in following up on this matter.
"According to our information, our law enforcement agencies opened the criminal case under considerations of not appearing on the 'black lists' of Russian colleagues and Western special services," reports the paper.