Armenia’s Investigative Committee (IC) reports that it has launched a criminal case regarding last month’s food poisoning of eighty employees of Hayastani Hogher (Lands of Armenia), a company owned by Argentine-Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekian.

The IC says that test results of food provided by the company to workers in the vineyards for lunch showed traces of Staphylococcus aureus- a common bacterium also called golden staph.

The IC says that 247 company employees ate sandwiches supplied by Alvina Melkonyan, a private contractor. The workers also ate cherries supplied by Melkonyan and water supplied by the private contractor Vazgen Ghukasyan.

Over eighty employees were hospitalized after complaining of upset stomachs and nausea.

The sandwiches, cherries and water were tested to ascertain the source of the problem.

The cherries and water tested clean.

No one has yet been charged with Article 277 of the Criminal Code (Violating Sanitation and Epidemic Regulations).

The investigation continues.