Grigor Igityan, who had been charged with defrauding American-Armenian benefactors Carolann and George Najarian out of a substantial amount of property, was sentenced to 4 ½ years imprisonment by the Kentron and Nork Marash Court. The sentence did not include a stipulation regarding a retrieval of the swindled assets.

The trial lasted 18 months. Due to delaying tactics by the defense, the final arguments stage of the trial had been postponed by four months. Finally, on September 9th Defense Attorney Kromvel Grigoryan made his closing arguments whilst the accused, Mr. Igityan, declared that he was innocent of the charges levied against him.

The court however substantiated the charges against Igityan – that between 1995-2001 he continuously engaged in tactics to confound and confuse the American-Armenian benefactor George Najarian and by gaining his trust, to deceitfully gain control of available and business-related funds in his bank accounts and by fraudulently using these to legally gain control of a photo shop in Yerevan located at 32 Abovyan Street as well as the partially constructed buildings #4 and 11/12  and the land they stand on  located in the ‘Dzoragyugh’ ethnographic neighborhood.”

The above-mentioned real estate, now under lock and key, and the photo laboratory purchased by Mr. Najarian for the photo store, were returned to the injured party by the court which found all the documentation supplied by Igityan to be invalid. The civil suit by Najarian, to recoup the income earned by the defendant through the photo store (some $90,000), was passed over by Judge Zhora Vardanyan who found a lack of substantiating evidence for such a claim.

The Court also found that Igityan didn’t declare the buildings in ‘Dzoragyugh’ to the Tax Service and that, according to his sales agreement, he unloaded the buildings at far less than market prices. He also failed to register the more than 5.5 million drams he made from the sale to the proper authorities.

The Court has substantiated the tax evasion charges brought against Igityan in this matter and is in the preliminary stage of assessing the losses incurred by the state.

The Judge however noted a number of mitigating circumstances to lighten the culpability of Igityan and declared that, “he is the sole bread winner of the family, has two individuals under his care, has no prior record and, as he himself states, is in ill-health.”

Judge Vardanyan has saw fit not to detain Igityan until the sentence takes legal effect, viewing the defendant’s signed pledge not to flee as adequate. Igityan has one month to appeal the sentence. This means that in case an appeal is filed, Igityan will remain free, even if the Court of Appeals changes nothing.

Hrayr Ghukasyan, the Najarians’ attorney, stated that, “The Court proved quite lenient. However, we’d all be more at ease if the Court found it necessary to detain the guilty party before the sentence goes into effect.” He states however that they are more or less satisfied with the court’s decision.

Most likely Mr. Igityan will appeal the sentence. In his past petitions and protests forwarded to top Armenian officials he has threatened “to take his case to the European Court in defense of his rights”.