Albert Ohanjanyan, accused of supplying the Artsakh Defense Army with frozen buffalo meat instead of beef last year, is compensating for damages incurred by building a 150,000 ton refrigerated unit (valued at US$181,000) from his own money.
Hetq has learnt that Albert Ohanjanyan, the Director of the Kapan Meat Combine, implicated in a frozen buffalo meat scam, was charged with swindling large amounts of cash and tax evasion of September 1.
Given that most of Aleksanyan’s companies are registered under the names of family members and close friends, it’s difficult to find a paper trail that leads back to him.
Hetq readers will remember our recent article exposing the fact that frozen Indian buffalo meat was being served at some Artsakh army bases. (See: Artskah Army Serving Frozen Indian Buffalo Meat; Criminal Case Underway)
According to Army Depot Lieutenant-Colonel Hovhannes Sargsyan, a member of the group, and former Armen Gabrielyan, a former serviceman in the Defense Army, an investigative committee found that the frozen meat was being served instead of locally produced beef at Military Unit 2 in Martuni (Artsakh) in June of last year.
He says that some 15% of the meat products tested showed GMO’s and that a portion of the meat could be described as genetically modified.
Armenia’s State Revenue Committee, responding to a Hetq query, stated that between 2007 and the first half of 2010, it had not uncovered any attempts to smuggle meat or meat byproducts into the country.