The officers of the Yerevan City Department of the NSS of RA, as a result of various and tactically combined operative-search measures carried out in the context of the fight against crime, established that the head of the Inquiry and Operational Search Department of the State Revenue Committee of RA, by prior agreement with two operations officers of the same division, having united their efforts, ex-officio being authorized to carry out tax administration and ensure the fulfillment of tax obligations, for apparent illegal inaction within their powers in favor of the founder and deputy director of a company engaged in entrepreneurial activities in Yerevan city, namely, for partial non-registration of committed offenses in the sphere of tax legislation, as well as for patronage or connivance in the service, they demanded and, according to a pre-arranged agreement, on 16 October, 2021, in one of the cafes in Yerevan, personally half Chile took a large bribe - 1,000,000 AMD, after which both the officials and the bribe giver were immediately seized and brought to the National Security Service. During a personal search, the entire amount of the bribe in an envelope was found and confiscated from one of the operations officers.

In addition, as a result of operative-search measures taken, it was also established that for the period from March to September 2021, one of the mentioned operations officers, demanded and received from 5 persons engaged in entrepreneurial activities in Yerevan city a bribe in various sizes, and also, by prior agreement with another operations officer of his department, on 22 September, 2021, received a large bribe from a representative of one of the economic entities – 200,000 AMD.

Within the framework of the criminal case initiated in the Investigation Department of the NSS of RA on the facts of giving and receiving a bribe, 4 officials of the SRC were detained on immediate suspicion of committing a crime, and 3 of the persons who had given them a bribe, on the basis of evidence obtained during the preliminary investigation, were charged under the relevant articles of the RA Criminal Code. On the same day, motions were submitted to the court to apply arrest as a measure of restraint against them.

The necessary procedural actions and operative-search measures arising from the investigative situation are continuing in the direction of uncovering all possible episodes of the corruption scheme, identifying the full circle of persons involved in them and giving an equivalent criminal-legal assessment to each act.

The National Security Service urges economic entities to carry out their activities exclusively in the legal field, to refrain from involvement in various manifestations of corruption that threaten the stability of the economic foundations of the state, and warns that they will receive a strict counteraction.

Note: The suspect or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent as long as his/her guilt is not proven in a manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of RA - by the court decision entered into legal force.