The General Department of Investigation of Smuggling and Economic Crimes of the RA Investigative Committee summed up the results of its one-year activity.

According to it, in 2023 968 criminal proceedings were initiated in the mentioned department as compared with 592 in the same period of the previous year.

Preliminary investigation of 86 criminal proceedings was completed and with the bill of indictment sent to court as compared with 36 criminal proceedings in 2022. 515 criminal proceedings were terminated as compared with 187 in the same period of the previous year. Namely, the number of the initiated criminal proceedings, as compared with the previous year, has increased by 63% significantly increasing the workload of the investigators of the department. However, under these conditions the proceedings, which were completed, have increased by 169,5%.

Only within the criminal proceedings investigated in the RA IC General Department of Investigation of Smuggling and Economic Crimes, in 2023 27 billion 785 million AMD has been recovered to the state budget which is by about 20% more (23 billion 185 million AMD) as compared with 2022. Moreover, in 2022 only within one proceeding the recovery amounted to around 19 billion AMD. On the whole, in 2023 as much damage caused to the state has been recovered as it was recovered from 2017 to 2021 together.

Om the whole, within the proceedings on economic crime and smuggling investigated in the general department, criminal prosecution has been initiated against 240 persons.

The investigated proceedings referred to

cases on importing various types of goods in large quantities, among them motor vehicles, to the RA territory without paying taxes and customs fees in particularly large amount,

cases on not paying taxes in particularly large amount as a result of construction of residential buildings in various parts of Yerevan,

cases on carrying out illegal entrepreneurial activity subject to licensing without a license in the sphere of mining,

several cases on carrying out entrepreneurial activity in the RA territory without paying taxes in particularly large amount,

cases on creating and managing a financial pyramid,

swindling money in particularly large amount by fraud from the state budget through committing document forgery,  

cases on money laundering,

cases on drugs smuggling, in some cases also through the territory of Armenia, as a transit road.

Significant results have been achieved in terms of the disclosure of criminal schemes to avoid tax obligations. Particularly, more than 8 billion AMD recovered of the damage caused to the state has been recovered within the multi-episode cases on not paying taxes in particularly large amount by a number of large companies by providing a commercial program combined with a special electronic server system, including also managers of shopping centers involved in retail chains. And 7.5 billion AMD – within the criminal proceedings investigated on various business entities engaged in car import and sales / export / activities.  

Within the initiated criminal proceedings decisions on imposing a ban on property have been made by the investigators of the general department.

At the same time, however, the investigative body within the proceedings on economic crimes has abstained from the emphasized practice of imposing ban on the accounts and funds of the companies.

Besides, an approach has been implemented to exempt businessmen who appeared in the criminal domain from criminal liability, with the presence of the necessary grounds, by applying the incentive norm, which pursued the goal of not hindering the normal activities of businessmen.

The study, carried out by the RA Investigative Committee in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this practice and the future tax behavior of businessmen, stated that  a significant increase in circulation and law-abiding tax behavior have mainly been demonstrated by the mentioned entities, as well as no cases of recidivism have been recorded.