Biography:
Ashot Yegiazaryan was born on July 24, 1965 in Moscow. His father Gevork Yegiazaryan was a head of the department of economics and industry of Moscow State University (MSU) in 1972-1995, and was a director of the International center for small business development in 1990-1995.
In 1988 Ashot Yegiazaryan graduated from the faculty of economics of MSU where he specialized in engineering economics. He also holds a Ph.D. in economics.
1988-1989 He worked as an economist for Moscow’s Sverdlov silk plant.
1988-1988 He was a senior specialist in Ekspotsentr (Moscow Expo Centre) international exhibition company.
1990-1992 He was a director general of the Foundation for social and economical development of Moscow region under the Mosoblispolkom (executive committee of Moscow region local government).
1993 He founded the Moscow National Bank (MNB).
1994-1996 He became a chairman of the board of the directors of MNB.
1996 He became a chairman of the private Russky Dom Bank (Limited Liability Company).
1997-1998 He was a president of the National Information Company (Closed JSC), worked for the ONEKSIM bank and was a director general of the Prof-Media Company.
1998-1999 He was an assistant to the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Yuri Maslyukov.
In 1999 Yegiazaryan gave testimony in the criminal case of $130 million embezzlement from the accounts of MNB. The money belonged to state-owned Rosvooruzheniye Weaponry Company. The investigation found out that MNB using forged documents withdrew the state funds. The funds were pumped through the MNB-controlled Unikom bank. In 1998 MNB lost its license, but no charges against Yegiazaryan were brought.
In 1999 he was involved in a scandal around the video which showed “a naked man similar to the Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov” accompanied by prostitutes. The video, aired nationwide on TV, is thought to be sponsored by Yegiazaryan. He denied these allegations.
In January 2000 he took up a post of Deputy Chairmen of the parliament’s budget and tax committee.
In 2003 Yegiazaryan was re-elected to the state Duma as a member of federal list of LDPR. Again he became the Deputy Chairmen of parliament’s budget and tax committee.
In March 2004 a group of Duma’s deputies applied to the Federal Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s office asking to check a source of funds, used by ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov to “get on his political career”. Allegedly the funds were raised from the machinations with the pollak fishing quota in the State Fishing Committee.
In 2007 he was reelected a state Duma’s deputy as a LDPR representative and again worked in the budget and tax committee.
In august 2010 a share-holder of the Evropark trading complex Vitaly Smagin petitioned the Prosecutor General asking to initiate a criminal case against Yegiazaryan, whom he accused of stealing his $30m worth 20% share in the Centurion Alliance (Closed JSC) which owns the Evropark. The shares were allegedly used to secure $87.5 million loan from Deutsche Bank to reconstruct the Moskva Hotel.
In September 2010 Yegiazaryan filed lawsuits in the courts of Cyprus and London against the Moskva Hotel shareholders, as well as against Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and his wife Elena Baturina. Yegiazaryan claimed that they took away his stake in the hotel.
Following a request by the head of Russia’s Investigation Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin the state Duma by the majority vote authorized the institution of criminal case against Yegiazaryan on charges of embezzlement.
On November 3, 2010, the state Duma stripped Yegiazaryan of parliamentary immunity. The same month the criminal case on charges of committing a crime that falls under Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the RF (large-scale fraud) was instituted.
Late in 2010 the investigation solicited the court to arrest the Evropark premises. The assets of the Moscow Site JSC and the Kamenny Most JSC, controlled by Yegiazaryan through the off-shore Brookmill Company, were arrested.
In January 2011 the Moscow’s Basmanny Court ruled to arrest Yegiazaryan’s assets which included about 1.5 million roubles remitted as a pay for the credit from the Centurion Alliance to Prechard Holding Limited and 100% stake of Daev Plaza JSC.
31 January, 2011, the same court sanctioned Yegiazaryan arrest in absentia.
Yegiazarian is married and brings up 4 children.
Source: Wikipedia
Dossier:
When in 1996 Yegiazarian became a First Deputy Chairman of Unikom bank he began to ruin this financial establishment. By June 1998 he did his best in pumping out all its assets. The official procedure of bankruptcy commenced. Thousands budged organizations and private investors were left with nothing. Except for the chairman of the Federation Council of Russia Yegor Stroyev who was fortunate to transfer the Stroyevs’ dollars to another bank two weeks before the withdrawal of a license.
Source: Novaya Gazeta, 21.06.1999
The inspection found out that the carnal pleasures of the Prosecutor General Skuratov were sponsored by people involved in the criminal offences. Federal Security Service chief Vladimir Putin and Internal Affairs Minister Sergey Stepashin said that the person on the video was indeed Skuratov. Moreover, the women who spent time with the prosecutor told that they were paid by other people. One of the sponsors might be the owner of Unikom bank and former head of MNB Ashot Yegiazaryan.
Source: Kommersant, №55 (1699) 03.04.1999
On June 24, 1996, Moscow region government handed the domestic borrowing bonds worth $656 million to Unikom bank. The bank guaranteed that it would return bonds and pay off 1.5% of their nominal value in a year. During the period from June to October the bonds were dispersed through the structures related to Yegiazaryan, mainly MNB. Yegiazaryan’s confidents at the time were Aleksandr Fomin and Maksim Demidov, who knew the full information about MNB and Unikom’s transactions. Fomin had undergone treatment in a mental health clinic with the diagnosis of schizophrenia and moved to Israel a year later. Demidov was attacked on a platform of an Italian town. His condition remains grieve. The doctors say his health was irretrievably damaged.
Source: Novaya Gazeta, 13.04.2000
Backed by the Minister of Press Lesin, Prime-minister Kasyanov and acting assistant director of All-Russia State Radio and Television Company (VGTRK) Zlatopolsky, Yegiazaryan received over $ 28.6 m to start ‘RTR-signal’ project. The television studios complex in Shabolovka, 35 (Moscow), along with the receiving and transmitting stations in Klin (Moscow region) were conveyed without permits and on the highly underestimated prices. Unikominvest-Centre became the owner of 74.5% share of the RTR-Signal. It purchased the stake for 313 million roubles received as a loan from the Unikom bank. This was the moment when the state lost all property, unique equipment and opportunity to control the activities of the company
Source: Novaya Gazeta, №56, 07.08.2000
In October 1996 the cabinet of ministers of Russian Federation ordered that the agreement upon “the restructuring the debt owed by the Republic of Angola to the former USSR for private and state loans” was to be signed. Although at the time Russia was not a member of the Paris Club it acted according to the international practice of ‘writing out’ debts of heavily indebted countries and provided 70% debt relief and the rescheduling that implied the payment could be done till mid-2011. Then Angola started payments and was to repay its debts fully in 2016. The liabilities were restructured in “internationally acclaimed bonds nominated in the US dollars”. The restructuring scheme did not evoke suspicions. The only flaw, which became a pain in the neck to the accountants who kept records of the debt in the Ministry of Finance and Vnesheconombank, was that Angola owed $ 5.5 billion dollars, while the agreement stipulated $ 5 billion as a total. A governmental source said that ‘both Ashot Yegiazaryan and Kostya Merzlikin worked closely with Arkady Gaydamak on squaring the matter with Angola. Instead of 5 billion Russia received about 100 million and change. Even this sum was lost on account of the Unicom or MSB.’
Source: Kompaniya magazine, 21.01.2001
It is rumoured that well-known businessman Arkady Gaydamak became an Angolan consul in Moscow. He is probably to settle down in Moscow and will not leave Russia soon. He has a few gas and oil projects in Kalmykia and Astrakhan Region. Arkady receives a support from businessman Ashot Yegiazaryan, who (some say) embarked on the demolition of the Moskva hotel.
Source: Dengi magazine, №5 (460), 09.02.2004
The fraud scandal broke out around the famous Moskva hotel. Russia’s Investigative Committee instituted criminal proceedings under the fraud article of the Criminal Code. The case under investigation involves the embezzlement of $ 87.5 million from a company that represents the real estate department of the Moscow City Council. The complainants say that famous businessman and member of the state Duma whose brother is a co-owner of the hotel, may cast some light on the story.
Sourse: Izvestiya, 24.06.2009
Moskva hotel was demolished in 2004. Since than Dekmos Company has been constructing a new hotel. Originally, 51% of its shares belonged to Dekorum (Closed JSC) that was a project’s investor with the rest belonging to the city council. Yegiazaryan controlled 100% stake in Dekorum. After the city council’s ordinance about the project’s investor 50% of shares of Dekorum (25.5% stake in Moskva hotel) was given to Rotenberg and Goloschapov. At the height of the crisis Yegiazaryan lost the rest of his stake.
At the end of 2008 Deutsche Bank demanded payment of the loan in the sum of $ 87.5 million, which the bank granted for the construction of the hotel. Yegiazaryan’s attempts to restructure the debt failed due to the city’s refusal to affirm his scheme. In the end OEK-finance Company (full subsidiary of the city council) paid the debt, planning to acquire 25.5% of Moskva hotel. Yegiazaryan says that the mayor’s wife Yelena Baturina was to participate in the project. As a result Yegiazaryan had to give away his stake in Dekorum.
A representative of Inteco firm, owned by Yelena Barurina, said that she had nothing to do with the conflict around the hotel. A representative of the department of municipal property in the city council said he was not aware of the court’s ruling.
Sourse: NEWSru.com 23.09. 2010
On November 24, 2010, due to non-cooperation with law-enforcement officials the warrant was issued to arrest deputy of the state Duma Ashot Yegizaryan, the official representative of Russia’s Investigative Committee says. A day before Yegiazaryan said that since 2010 he has been permanently residing in the USA and will not come back to Russia, because of threats to his life. He pointed to the criminal case №231037, instituted after Yegiazaryan appeal on February 9, 2010 under the Section 1, Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the RF (threat of homicide or serious health damages). Meanwhile, this case was terminated on November 17, 2010 due to the absence of the criminal event.
Source: Rosbalt information agency, 26.11.2010
The court ruled to arrest 3 plots of land belonging to deputy of the State Duma Ashot Yegiazaryan, who is charged of embezzlement. Moscow’s Basmanny Court ordered that 2 plots of land in Zhukovka-1 village and a plot in Barvikha village should be arrested.
Source: BFM.ru, 16.12.2010
Moscow’s Basmanny Court sanctified the arrest of MP Ashot Yegiazaryan in absentia. The charges of large-scale fraud were brought against him. The main investigation department of the Russia’s Investigarion Committee solicited the court to imprison Yegiazaryan. The investigation believes that Yegiazaryan offered his acquaintance Mikhail Ananiev to take part in funding the development project on building the mall on the Rublevoye highway and reconstruction of Moskva hotel. Yegiazaryan promised the stakes in the business according to the invested sums. Yegiazaryan has never fulfilled the promised, embezzling half-billion roubles. Apart from that Yegiazaryan fraudulently acquired the right to 20% in shares worth over 1.5 billion roubles ($48.7 million) in a company which runs a shopping complex on Rublevskoye highway. The right had belonged to businessman Vitaly Smagin.
Source: Infox.ru, 31.01.2011
The majority of 377 deputies voted for the approval of “implementing the court’s ruling which chooses the pre-trial detention as a preventive measure against Ashot Gevorkovich Yegiazaryan, the deputy of the state Duma of the Federal Assembly of the RF, suspected of committing criminal offences”. 38 deputies voted against with one abstainee.
Source: Ekho Planety, 09.03.2011