Armenia seizes assets in new anti-corruption drive
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Armenia’s government is now enforcing a law allowing it to confiscate property from people unable to prove the funds came from legal sources.
The law, which took effect in 2020, targets assets worth more than $132,120 and applies to former political and financial leaders including Robert Kocharyan, Gagik Tsarukyan, and Gagik Khachatryan, all accused of offenses like money laundering and bribery.
Since 2018, the state and local communities have recovered around $840 million in assets, with over $562 million recovered in the last three and a half years. However, legal experts like Aram Orbelyan point to contradictions within the law, noting it combines elements of asset declaration checks with proof of criminal activity, creating confusion.
They also highlight the difficulty of investigating property acquired in the 1990s due to limited records and the lack of a mandatory declaration system at the time. Varuzhan Hoktanian of Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption Centre notes that the Constitutional Court sought advice from the Venice Commission, which recommended civil proceedings for confiscation and shared responsibility for proving legal asset origins.
Concerns also exist that the law could be used for political pressure, creating a cycle of dispossession, and that confiscated property may simply transfer to new elites rather than benefiting the public. The government has not yet established clear rules for how confiscated funds will be used, leading to calls for earmarking them for social programs.
