The Armenian government today appointed Abovyan Mayor Karapet Gouloyan as the new provincial governor (marzpet) of Kotayk.

Karapet Gouloyan is the son of Prosperous Armenia MP Mourad Gouloyan and the son-in-law of that party’s founder Gagik Tsarukyan (seen in photo).

As to why the young Gouloyan, who has only served as mayor of Abovyan (pop. 42,000), has been appointed provincial governor remains a mystery. What skills does he bring to the job?

What we do know is that Karapet Gouloyan is one of the wealthiest mayors in Armenia. Purely by coincidence, his wife and the wife of Argam Abrahamyan (the prime minister’s son) are sisters.

According to his 2014 financial disclosure, Gouloyan had a whopping 1.352 billion AMD in the bank, along with a paltry US$ 94,000, at year’s end.

Gouloyan only declared his annual wages of 2.620 million AMD as income.

His wife, Roza Tsarukyan, declared no income but did have 17 million AMD and $44,000 in the bank.

The Gouloyans conduct part of their business dealings with Argam Abrahamyan, son of Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan. Hetq has written that the Abovyan City supermarket, famous in the town, is known to belong to Mayor Karapet Gouloyan. 50% of the shares, according to the State Registry, belong to the new provincial governor’s mother, Noyemzar Kalatchyan, and the other 50% to Argam Abrahamyan.

Karapet Gouloyan’s parents are in good financial straits themselves but they haven’t declared everything. Accordingly, Mourad Gouloyan purchased shares in a company worth 287.595 million AMD. He declared 270 million AMD and $1.250 million in bank deposits.

Noyemzar Kalatchyan has only declared a tiny amount in revenue even though she’s a shareholder in several companies. In 2013, she only declared her 260,000 AMD pension as revenue. She only declared $4,500 in the bank.

As of February 2012, Mourad Gouloyan owns 100% of the Shirak Poultry Factory.

Mourad Gouloyan has a 50/50 business interest with another member of parliament, Melik Manukyan. They own a construction company called SARPET Ltd.

Last year, MP Gouloyan founded Eco Agro Ltd. He owns it outright.