Best Road LLC, a company owned by a relative of Goris Mayor Arush Arushanyan, signed  a contract with the Goris Council worth AMD 312 million ($833,573) on March 19 of this year. The agreement was the result of an open tender announced by the community, in which Best Road LLC was the sole participant.

According to the contract announcement, Best Road LLC is tasked with overhauling several streets in the city of Goris. The company was established by Hayk Baghdasaryan on June 13, 2019, and he remains the sole owner.

In June 2021, criminal proceedings involving Arush Arushanyan commenced in the Syunik Provincial Criminal Court. The court stated that Hayk Baghdasaryan, owner of Best Road LLC, is the grandson of Arushanyan’s uncle, but alleged that Arushanyan is the de facto owner of the company. Charges against Arushanyan included several articles of the Criminal Code, such as illegal entrepreneurship through Best Road LLC and unauthorized use of subsoil. However, the court noted that the claim of Arushanyan’s actual ownership of the company was not substantiated.

Arushanyan told Hetq that multiple companies participate in tenders and that Best Road LLC does not receive any preferential treatment. He described Hayk Baghdasaryan as a distant relative whom he has not seen for a long time and stated that there is no conflict of interest in the transaction.

Arushanyan has served Goris mayor since 2017 and ran in the 2021 parliamentary elections as part of the Armenia (Hayastan) bloc. Recently, he has ceased his criticism of Nikol Pashinyan and his administration. Notably, Pashinyan was accompanied by Arushanyan during his visit to Goris on March 15 of this year.