While a Swiss court is trying to freeze millions of dollars in the Magnitsky case, some of that money has ended up in Armenia.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has recorded that a Russian businessman under sanctions, Denis Katsyv, managed to withdraw about 6.5 million francs from Swiss banks in February 2026 and move them to Israel and Armenia. The Assembly discussed how a mistake by the Swiss courts allowed Denis Katsyv to move his money out of that country.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) published report No. 16362 at its April 2026 session. It is titled “Tracking the proceeds of the crime denounced by Sergei Magnitsky and holding its perpetrators accountable.” The report clearly mentions transfers made by Denis Katsyv from the Swiss bank UBS to Israel and Armenia. Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland has already confirmed that the funds in Katsyv’s accounts are proceeds of crime. 6 million Swiss francs were transferred to Israel, and 524,000 Swiss francs (about $592,000) to Armenia.

To understand what amounts are involved, let’s recall what the Magnitsky case is.

The Magnitsky Case: $230 Million Fraud in Russia

In 2007, a group of officials and criminals (the Klyuev Group) carried out one of the largest tax frauds in Russian history. In 2007, Russian law enforcement agencies raided the Moscow offices of the Hermitage Capital investment fund and seized the seals and founding documents of three subsidiaries: Rilend, Parfenion, and Makhaon.

Using these documents, the criminal group falsified property rights and reregistered companies under the names of fictitious individuals (in particular, individuals associated with convicted criminal Dmitry Klyuev).

Artificial liabilities were created through bogus lawsuits, based on which $230 million in previously paid corporate income tax was claimed back from the state budget. The lawyer who exposed this scheme, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested by the very officials he had testified against, and after almost a year of torture, he died in the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center.

The famous Magnitsky Act, which was adopted in the United States (and later in other countries) and imposes sanctions on individuals involved in human rights violations and corruption, is named after him.

The Role of Denis Katsyv and the Prevezon Company

The investigation revealed that part of the stolen money was laundered through companies. One of the recipients of the proceeds of crime is the Cypriot company Prevezon Holdings Ltd. Denis Katsyv was the owner of the Cypriot company Prevezon Holdings.

How the Money Reached Yerevan

On April 18, 2026, swissinfo.ch published an investigation describing how Katsyv’s money flowed to Armenia. Later, the name of the Armenian company was removed from the article. However, it was preserved in the web archive.

On February 12, 2026, two transfers were made from Denis Katsyv’s personal UBS account, totaling 523,569 francs (338,569 and 185,000 francs) to the current account of Landmark Capital at Incore Bank AG in Switzerland. The purpose of the transaction was clearly stated as “replenishment of the account of Denis Katsyv, a client of Landmark Capital”, to the account of Evocabank operating in Yerevan.

Landmark Capital CJSC is an investment company operating in Armenia, which has a license issued by the Central Bank, No. 0016.

On February 12, the day the funds were transferred, the Swiss Supreme Court had already overturned the previous decision in Katsyv’s favor and demanded a recalculation of the amounts subject to confiscation. This gives grounds to assume that the funds were transferred to Armenia to avoid their possible seizure in Switzerland. 

Why the Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Bank Failed to Act

In paragraph 13 of the report, the Assembly expresses “serious concern” that the Swiss authorities allowed Katsyv to withdraw the funds from the country and clearly states that these funds were transferred to Armenian and Israeli banks.

According to Armenia’s Law “On Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism”, there are sufficient grounds to assume that the legalization of criminally obtained property has taken place. Logic suggests that after the publication of the PACE report, Armenian law enforcement agencies should have immediately initiated criminal proceedings to determine the legality of the funds that entered Armenia.

At the same time, the funds should have been seized or frozen to prevent their further circulation. Let’s see what steps Armenia has taken.

Shroud of Secrecy: Citing the law, Evocabank, the Central Bank and the Investment Company, Refuse to Speak

Hetq has sent official inquiries to all participants in the transaction to determine whether due diligence was conducted, considering that the owner of the funds is a person at the center of an international scandal.

The Chairman of the Board of Evocabank CJSC, Karen Yeghiazaryan, refused to answer our question, citing banking secrecy. Referring to Articles 4, 5 and 6 of the RA Law “On Banking Secrecy”, he stated that the requested information cannot be provided to third parties. However, the head of the bank added that Evocabank fully monitors, controls and adheres to the requirements of the RA Legislation “On Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism” during its activities.” The bank is silent about how this “full control” allowed it to accept the funds of a person involved in the Magnitsky case.

We also received a similar answer from Gor Gevorgyan, Executive Director of Landmark Capital CJSC. He noted that the requested information, according to the RA Law “On Securities Market”, is official information, the publication of which is prohibited. The company has neither denied nor confirmed that Denis Katsyv is their client and that such a transfer took place.

Armenia’s Central Bank’s “Promising” Response

Chairman of the Central Bank (CB), Martin Galstyan, also did not respond to our questions about the above-mentioned transactions and the risks of possible sanctions. The CB noted that the Financial Monitoring Center (FMC) is prohibited by law from publishing the information it receives and analyzes, therefore it is not authorized to provide information about specific transfers.

However, the CB tried to emphasize its importance in the following way: “The Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia monitors all signals related to Armenia and forms a supervisory response. Signals about the possible involvement of an Armenian financial institution in any international criminal scheme are being studied.” However, it is obvious that the Central Bank was not interested in the part of the PACE report related to Armenia at all. The effectiveness of this study becomes clear from the following official letter.

Armenia’s Prosecutor’s Office Has No Clue

In response to our official inquiry, the Prosecutor’s Office stated:

“In 2025-2026 The RA Prosecutor General’s Office has not received any information from the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia about the transfers made by Denis Katsyv or his affiliated companies from the Swiss bank то Evocabank during the period.

This means that the Financial Monitoring Center (FMC) of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia either did not notice this banking transaction that is of concern to the PACE at all or did not classify it as suspicious and did not transfer it to law enforcement agencies. While the Central Bank assures that it is following “all signals related to Armenia,” the Prosecutor’s Office’s response makes it clear that the PACE report is not a signal for them.

The Prosecutor’s Office also reported that no request for legal assistance has been received from the competent authorities in Switzerland. This also confirms the Swiss lawyers’ claims that the Swiss prosecutor’s office made a gross error by not freezing Katsyv’s accounts in a timely manner and not declaring an international search for the money.

Hetq also sent a request to Sona Ghazaryan, a member of the National Assembly of Armenia from the Civil Contract party, who participated in the April 2026 session of the PACE, where the scandalous report was adopted. We tried to find out whether the member of parliament informed the Armenian law enforcement agencies about this alert regarding Armenia, and whether the issue was discussed within her party.

MP Sona Ghazaryan responded: “I would like to inform you that the report “Tracing the Proceeds of Crime Revealed by Sergei Magnitsky and Bringing Those Responsible to Account” is a publicly available document and does not contain any accusations against the Republic of Armenia. No accusations were made during the discussions either, therefore the answer to both questions is no.”

While preparing the article for publication, Hetq learned that Hermitage Capital Management Limited, the company that has been initiating investigations into the “Magnitsky case” for decades and filed the first criminal complaint in Switzerland, has addressed official complaints to Armenian state institutions.

Letters were sent to Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan and Head of the Financial Monitoring Center (FMC) of the Central Bank Astghik Karamanukyan.

Hetq contacted a company representative, asking for details of the applications addressed to the FMC Head and the Prosecutor General.

“In a letter addressed to Astghik Karamanukyan, we have demanded that the approximately 524,000 francs transferred from Denis Katsyv’s accounts to Evocabank be immediately frozen and all related transactions be investigated. And we demand that Anna Vardapetyan be prosecuted using the mechanisms for confiscation of illicit assets, since the connection of these funds to the large-scale embezzlement of the Russian budget has already been confirmed by high international judicial bodies,” a representative of Hermitage Capital told Hetq.

After these personally addressed letters the Central Bank and the Prosecutor General’s Office can no longer say that it is a secret or that they are not knowledgeable.

P.S. The infographic accompanying this article has been revised to correct an error. We apologize to our readers for the oversight.

Photo: Denis Katsyv

Main image and infographic by Aren Nazaryan