Former Head of Social Security Service Sentenced to 12 Years Imprisonment

Vazgen Khachikyan, the former head of the Social Security Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. The other former officials were sentenced to 1-6 years imprisonment.

According to the charge, Vazgen Khachikyan, working as the head of the Social Security Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs from January 14, 2005 to December 17, 2010, and a group of other officials abused their powers from 2006-2010. They embezzled a total of 260,956,81 AMD ($576,701) previously unpaid pensions by falsifying applications, forging signatures. Additionally, Vazgen Khachikyan fraudulently stole a total of 29,000,000 AMD from the state budget.

As yerkir.am reports, the defendants Ashot Abrahamyan, Hovhannes Grigoryan, Vigen Gevorgyan, Vahagn Khachatryan were sentenced to 5.5 years imprisonment and confiscation of their property, but no more than 261,000,000 AMD. The other defendants were sentenced to 4 – 4.5 without confiscation of property, however the court implemented a suspended sentence with a one year probation.