Former Armenian Culture Minister Gets Charged with Fraud
Former Armenian Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan was today sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment after being found guilty of abuse of power and fraud conspiracy.
Poghosyan, who served as culture minister from 2006 to 2016, was implicated in the fraudulent theft, organized by a criminal gang, of a 300 square meter area the government provided to the Yerevan Tchaikovsky Secondary Music School SNCO (state non-commercial organization).
Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court then pardoned Poghosyan under a general amnesty (“On Declaring Amnesty in Criminal Cases in Commemoration of the 2800th Anniversary of the Foundation of Erebuni-Yerevan and the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the First Republic of Armenia”), which entered into force on November 6, 2018.
Poghosyan’s tenure as minister is rife with various criminal charges.
Hetq, in 2015, revealed that Poghosyan and then Armenian Ambassador to Israel Armen Smbatyan, forged documents to acquire a two-story downtown Yerevan building colloquially known as AOKS. (AOKS is the Russian acronym for the Armenian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries – ASRFC.)
The building and land were then sold to an offshore company, owned by Poghosyan’s daughter-in-law, for $550,000.
In 2020, Armenia’s Investigative Committee issued an arrest warrant for Poghosyan, charging her with abuse of power and money laundering. She fled Armenia for parts unknown.
In 2024, Armenia’s Prosecutor General Office (PGO) requested the courts to confiscate one billion drams (US$2.482M) from Poghosyan, claiming she purchased several properties with illegally acquired funds.
In October 2025, Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court, overruling a lower court’s verdict, issued a ruling that Poghosyan must pay AMD 25 million ($65,600) in compensation because of the improper execution of the contracts she signed as minister in 2007 and 2008 with the Gugark company for the implementation of restoration works at the Kobayravank monastery complex under the Monuments Restoration Program.
