Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Offive has filed a request with the country’s Anti-Corruption Court to seize 993.1 million drams (US$238,000 from former Hayastan-All Armenian Fund Executive Director Ara Vardanyan who was arrested in July 2018 on embezzling millions from the fund for gambling and other personal pursuits.

Vardanyan confessed to withdrawing money from an AMD 28 million credit line that the Fund had with a local bank but claimed to have used his savings to return the money without anyone knowing of the theft.

Vardanyan resigned from the post days later.

In 2021, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) also charged Vardanyan of drawing up and signing fake furniture contracts worth 292.8 million drams to supply furniture for secondary schools in Artsakh.

The NSS says the money was transferred from the Hayastan Fund to an unnamed company involved in the scam.

Vardanyan, who headed the Fund from 2009 to 2018, is awaiting his day in court.