Operations on hold at Gagik Tsarukyan’s businesses following his arrest

Operations at multiple businesses owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, billionaire and leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party, have been suspended since his arrest on Monday.

According to Radio Free Europe’s Armenian service, workers at the AraratCement factory in the southwestern Ararat Province, a key asset of the tycoon’s business empire, gathered in large numbers near the facility on Thursday, demanding explanations on when they would be allowed to return to work. The workers told the publication they had also not received their June salaries and were facing financial difficulties. The company has so far been unable to tell employees when operations would resume.

The entrances to the facility have been sealed since Monday, and police prevented workers from entering the building on Thursday.

Operations have also been suspended at other major businesses known to be directly or indirectly owned by Tsarukyan, including the Noy brandy factory in central Yerevan and the Multi Wellness recreational and fitness center.

Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reiterated his plan to seek the nationalization of AraratCement, following the announcement of such plans earlier in May. The move to nationalize the facility is being pursued by the Prosecutor General’s Office, which has stated that there were violations in Tsarukyan’s acquisition of the plant from the state in the early 2000s.

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Tsarukyan was arrested on Monday and placed in two months of pre-trial detention on Tuesday after being charged with large-scale money laundering and fraud. In a message from jail on Thursday, he denied the accusations, calling them “obviously false” and “fabricated.”

The arrest came a month after Armenia held a nationwide parliamentary election, in which Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia party finished just several hundred votes short of the 4% threshold required to win parliamentary seats.

Following a week of recounts and the invalidation of results at three constituencies, as well as a controversial decision by the Central Electoral Commission not to hold repeat elections in those constituencies, Prosperous Armenia’s chances of entering parliament were ultimately ended after the Constitutional Court on Saturday rejected the opposition’s appeal seeking to invalidate the election results altogether.

Two days after the election, Tsarukyan was placed under a travel ban after attempting to leave the country, and economic crime charges were announced against him.

In a separate development, Aregnaz Manukyan of the Prosperous Armenia party was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of disclosing state secrets. The arrest is believed to be connected to the investigation into Andranik Tevanyan, a former lawmaker who ran for parliament with Prosperous Armenia in the June election. He was arrested in May and charged with high treason.