Epress.am News from Armenia
Prior to entering into agricultural loan agreements with the residents of Vayots Dzor's Khachik village, employees of Aregak and Finca lending organizations, Varos Sargsyan and Edvard Hovsepyan respectively, knew that the envisaged money would actually be handed over to spouses Alvard Iskandaryan and Arsen Mnatsakanyan, the owners of a local convenience store, Ashot Apresyan, a lawyer for 17 Khachik villagers, told Epress.am. The store owners, as stated by the lawyer, took out numerous loans in the name of about 100 villagers but stopped paying them off in August, 2015, and currently the villagers are facing lawsuits over the unpaid loans of nearly 130 million drams (about $270 270).
“'Aregak' and 'Finca' give out targeted agricultural loans for agricultural development. Since the loan officers knew beforehand that the villager would not actually get that money, they were obligated to turn down [the loan requests],” Apresyan said.
The lawyer claimed that the villagers had signed the agreements at the spouses' store, in the presence of loan officers: “None of them had personally turned to these lending organizations for a loan. On the contrary, the loan officers went to Alvard's store who then phoned specific people and invited them over. There, in the presence of the loan officer, she offered them to take out a loan and give it to her. Which means that from that point on the employee of the lending organization was aware that the loan application contained false data. Moreover, the application was either filled out by Alvard or by the villagers themselves, but at Alvard's dictation.”
One of the application pages, however, was filled out by loan officers, where they listed the villagers' assets and liabilities, Apresyan added. “The officers judged whether the villagers would be able to repay the loans based on their obligations and income. For several of them, assets and liabilities were recorded incorrectly: assets were overstated while liabilities were understated.”
The lawyer also commented on Finca representative Zarzand Harutyunyan's claim that the officer of the lending organization was unaware who the money would actually go to: “Their lawyer insists that they did not know in advance, but it has already been proven that up until August 15, 2015, nearly 60-70 loans in other people's names were given to Alvard and Arsen. The spouses do not deny this either and they hold all the payment receipts.”
Khachik residents, Apresyan added, should not have to bear the whole responsibility for the current situation: “Of course, at first glance it might seem that the citizens have deceived the lending organization by taking out a loan and giving it to someone else. And if now they are unable to pay the loans off, it's their problem. But if loan officers enter into a deal with a citizen and tell another one to take out a loan and give it to the first person, then they should be held liable, too.”