Epress.am News from Armenia
Head of Armenia's Compulsory Enforcement Service of Judicial Acts (CESJA) Mihran Poghosyan (pictured) in March had a monetary dispute with owner of the Star supermarket chain Gevorg Afandyan, to whom he had loaned $5,146,842, which he couldn't get back, writes Syuzan Simonyan in local daily Hraparak.
It's not apparent from the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork Marash Administrative Districts of Yerevan ruling, Simonyan writes, how and when Afandyan accrued his debt to state official and shady millionaire Poghosyan.
The Compulsory Enforcement Service press officer declined to provide any comments to the newspaper, explaining that the case refers to personal issues and not to CESJA activity.
The reporter recalls that in August 2011, Viest Assets, an offshore company registered on the British Virgin Islands, became a major shareholder in Star, and a month later, Star Divide acquired the Fresh supermarket chain and 30 stores of the Catherine chain belonging to the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer (Poghosyan).
It can be assumed that the debt accrued during this time, writes the reporter, adding that the judicial process ended unexpectedly well for the bankrupt businessman, whose hard times, it seems, are behind him.
During the court hearings, the parties reached an agreement, and as a result of the reconciliation, Poghosyan conceded most of the $5 million debt. The $5,146,842, according to the court's estimates, is a little more than 2 billion Armenian dram. Poghosyan conceded a large part of this money — 1.5 billion AMD — together with the accrued interest to Afandayn, asking from him only 499 million AMD. As a result of what mutual agreement this deal occurred and who persuaded Poghosyan to turn down this enormous amount of money, one can only guess. His representative in court, attorney Lyudvig Davtyan told the paper he doesn't want to add anything to what is already stated in the court ruling. Asked under what conditions Poghosyan "donated" 1.5 billion AMD to Afandyan, the lawyer didn't wish to answer, as it was "Poghosyan's good will."
The reporter doesn't rule out the possibility that playing a huge role in all this was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's brother, Sashik Sargsyan, with whom Afandyan became close recently, and who, according to the newspaper, has taken under his wing the owner of the famous retail chain of which only the name remains: Star.