Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a criminal investigation based on an August 12 Hetq article revealing that Mkhitar Matevosyan, the mayor of Vayk, a community in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor province, signed contracts totaling 537 million drams (US$1.323m) with a company owned by his wife Mary Margaryan.

Matevosyan managed the company since he founded it in January 2013 but transferred his shares and the running of the company to his wife after his election as mayor in December 2021.

Matevosyan, faced fraud charges when he served as company director before being elected Vayk mayor in December 2021,

Armenia’s Investigative Committee, in 2019, said Mavshin LLC reneged on a 120-million-dram contract it signed with the Vayk Municipality in 2016 to renovate the community’s stadium and public park.

The charges were later dropped.