A Yerevan court today decided to release Sedrak Arustamyan, the director of Multi Group Concern LLC, on 50 million AMD ($98,040) bail.

The news was conveyed to Hetq by Arustamyan's lawyer Hovik Sukiasyan.

Arustamyan is accused of money laundering and bribery.

In June of this year, Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced that Gagik Khachatryan, a former head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) and former Minister of Finance, arrested in August 2019 on embezzlement and abuse of power charges, accepted 8.142 billion AMD ($22.401million) in bribes from Multi Group Concern General Director Sedrak Arustamyan.

Khachatryan, according to the understanding reached with Arustamyan, was to keep state tax and customs agencies from prying into the operations of Multi Group Concern.

Multi Group was established in 1998 by Gagik Tsarukyan, an Armenian businessman who also heads the Prosperous Armenia Party. A holding group, Multi Concern owns the Yerevan Ararat Brandy Wine-Vodka Factory, Euromotors, Multi Group Stone, Kotayk Brewery, and several other companies.

Arustamyan does not accept the charges leveled against him.