Ara Sadoyan, former administrative head of Yerevan’s Kentron district, and Alfred Sadoyan (son of Ara’s brother, Armenian Ambassador to Georgia Ruben Sadoyan), founded an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands years ago to mask overseas investments.

The revelation is part of an ongoing Pandora Papers investigation initiated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its affiliated media outlets, including Hetq.

The ICIJ recently published a final batch of Pandora Papers data on more than 9,000 offshore companies, trusts and foundations. The new data comes from seven offshore providers headquartered in Hong Kong, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Switzerland and Dubai.

They are Asiaciti Trust Asia Limited, CILTrust International, Commence Overseas Limited, IlShin, Overseas Management Company Inc, SFM Corporate Services and Trident Trust Company Limited. Sixteen current and former country leaders were connected to offshore entities that received services from these providers.

Trident Trust Group, with branches in various countries, including the British Virgin Islands (Trident Trust Company (B.V.I.) Limited, was the agent of the Sadoyans' Virgin Islands company Belair Worldwide S.A.

In May 2011, when Trident Trust registered Sadoyans’ company, Alfred Sadoyan, one of its owners, was a twenty-year-old law student at Yerevan State University. Alfred’s father, Republican Party member Ruben Sadoyan, was a member of the National Assembly (2007-2017). In October 2017, Ruben Sadoyan was appointed Armenia’s Ambassador to Georgia. Ara Sadoyan, Ruben’s younger brother, served as head of Yerevan’s Kentron district from 2012-2018. Prior to this, he worked as a customs inspector.

Alfred Sadoyan now works as an assistant to Artak Kamalyan, a board member (minister) of the Eurasian Economic Commission (the EEU’s regulatory body) on industry and the agro-industrial complex.

Alfred and Ara Sadoyan were also directors of Belair Worldwide S.A. It was originally planned that the 50,000 shares of the start-up company (each worth $1) would be split equally between the two. This soon changed.

In June 2011, the Swiss RBS Coutts Bank became the new owner of Belair Worldwide S.A. The bank, among other services, was also engaged in capital management. This is important because correspondence between the employees of Trident Trust and RBS Coutts Bank shows that the bank had in fact become the formal owner of Belair Worldwide S.A., and the beneficiary owners were Alfred and Ara Sadoyan. In other words, the bank would not only manage their assets, but also serve as a “cover”.

Correspondence between RBS Coutts Bank and Trident Trust lists the Sadoyans' business holdings as the Armenian-registered construction company Bellis, Unigraph-X (for the sterilization and neutralization of stray animals), and the advertising company Universal Graphics (now Onlyad). The Sadoyans own other companies as well.

Belair Worldwide S.A. did not last long. August 2011 correspondence by Trident Trust employees shows that the Sadoyans did not make the necessary payments to register the company and it was struck off from the BVI register.

According to British Virgin Islands law, companies that have been struck off for seven years are automatically dissolved if they do not make the appropriate payments in the interim.

Top photo: Ara and Alfred Sadoyan