
2019: Hetq's Work Gets Results
We published 37 local investigations and one international investigation. Based on the 9 articles published, the Prosecutor General’s Office launched seven criminal cases and is investigating two. Several of those responsible have been dismissed.
- Cooperating with our international partners, we unearthed the Troika Laundromat money laundering scheme, where the personal data of Armenian migrant workers were illegally used.
- We studied the local and international businesses and assets of Armenia's richest oligarch, Gagik Tsarukyan.
- We revealed an organized crime group operating in Yerevan, whose activity has been suspended and an investigation has been launched by law enforcement.
- We revealed that there is a "black market" for weight reduction drugs in Armenia that sells capsules containing banned drugs. The prosecutor's office launched an investigation, and some of the drugs have been recalled.
- We detected violations in the Armenian market of biologically active additives, leading to the recalling of state registration for some of the additives. Some of the manufacturers were subject to surveillance.
- Due to one of our investigations, the Director of Veolia Water was fired, and the Public Services Regulatory Commission stopped subsidizing potable water from the state budget.
- A criminal case was initiated based on the investigation of the privatization of forest lands in Tsakhkadzor. The prosecutor's office will appeal to the courts for the return of the lands to the state.
- We uncovered that cash register receipt machines were sold at 70% more than their cost to businesses. A criminal case has been filed involving former high-ranking officials of the State Revenue Committee.
- Based on a Hetq lawsuit, the Administrative Court obligated the State Revenue Committee to provide the contracts for the sales receipt machines, and the government also disclosed the sales receipt machine decisions.
- Subsequent to a Hetq investigation, a company owned by the son of former Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Harutyunyan planted 20,000 trees in Jermuk.
- We studied the issue of tailings recycling, after which MP Mary Galstyan introduced a bill recognizing the monopoly law on the tailings recycling company as invalid.
- We have explored and identified the owners of gold mines in Armenia.
- We studied the closed institutions of Armenia and wrote 13 articles of inquiry on the issues that were not addressed in those institutions. Two of these articles received special awards.
- We conducted training on investigative and data journalism tools and 42 journalists have been trained. As a result, 5 investigative materials were prepared and local self-government elections were covered in 19 communities.
- We created a data.hetq.am database of officials 'property, resulting in the discovery of dozens of judges' unreported assets and donations suggesting conflict of interest issues.
- We hosted interns from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan who, with the help of the Hetq team, discovered real estate holdings of their officials in Dubai.
- We launched the Hetq Media Factory project. Starting in September 2020, it will teach investigative journalism, data visualization, fact-checking, mobile journalism, animation, and photo/video journalism to 60 students.
- After a publication of Hetq, a Vazashen family received a new home.
- This year, our journalists received 11 awards from various international and local organizations.
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