During the debate in Armenia’s parliament regarding the proposed bill to raise the minimum wage from 32,500 AMD to 35,000, ruling Republican Party MP Mkrtich Minasyan told Hetq that while the increase wasn’t sufficient, he could get by on 35,000 for one month.

“It would be tough but I’d try if forced to. I don’t drink or smoke and hardly eat meat. To keep my cholesterol down I eat boiled rice with no oil,” Minasyan said.

I took at look at MP Minasyan’s official financial disclosure and immediately was convinced that the man couldn’t possibly make do on 35,000 a month.

As revenue, in his 2011 disclosure, Minasyan entered 3,387,250 AMD. He failed to claim the nature of the revenue, but I assume it was his yearly salary.

By the end of 2011, Minasyan’s bank deposits skyrocketed from 1.5 million AMD to 10 million and from $3,000 to $10,000.

Where the additional money came from is anybody’s guess. You would think such numbers would set off red flags at the parliament’s ethics committee, but it hasn’t.

In 2011, Minasyan also purchased a $50,000 Mercedes G500.

Minasyan’s wife Hasmik also saw a drastic rise in her revenues.

She declared bank deposits of 1.5 million AMD at the start of 2011 and 7 million at the end of the year. Her $35,000 in the bank increased to $42,000 by year’s end.