Armenia’s Former Deputy PM Oversaw Project That Benefited His Family Company

By Mkrtich Karapetyan and Ani Grigoryan

This article was jointly produced by OCCRP and CivilNet.

Armenia’s former deputy prime minister, Tigran Avinyan, was swept to power by the country’s “Velvet Revolution” in 2018. His family company went on to indirectly benefit from a state agricultural program he oversaw.

Key Findings

• Nine beneficiaries of an agricultural program subcontracted work to a company owned by the family of Tigran Avinyan, the official overseeing the program.
• Five of these beneficiaries received about $620,000 worth of direct payments to set up intensively cultivated orchards.
• Two of those companies ranked as the second and third largest recipients of direct payments overall.

In 2018, Tigran Avinyan rode a wave of anti-government protests to the heights of Armenian political power.

That was the year the country’s “Velvet Revolution” ended two decades of rule by the long-dominant Republican Party and installed the opposition Civil Contract in its place. Avinyan, who was just 29 at the time, was catapulted from a lowly Yerevan city council member to deputy prime minister.

While his political star was rising, Avinyan’s family business was also benefiting from state funds doled out in programs that he oversaw, an investigation by OCCRP and its partner Civilnet has found.

During Avinyan’s tenure as deputy prime minister from 2018 to 2021, nine beneficiaries of an agricultural program under Avinyan’s purview subcontracted work out to Irrigate LLC, a company Avinyan founded and which was owned by his brother at the time, according to government records.

These beneficiaries — which included companies and at least one individual — collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a special type of orchard designed to maximize fruit production. It is not clear how much Irrigate LLC ultimately received for its work.

Reporters did not find evidence of misconduct in the awarding of the contracts. Of the beneficiaries who responded to requests for comment, two said they chose Irrigate because of the quality of its work, and one said Irrigate was selected “by chance.” Avinyan, his father and brother, and Irrigate LLC did not respond to requests for comment.

Credit: Alexandros Michailidis/Alamy Stock Photo
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.Civil Contract’s leader, the current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, entered office promising to strengthen democracy and eradicate corruption.

As deputy prime minister, Avinyan was entrusted with coordinating government projects related to economic development, technology, and infrastructure. He also served as chairman at the state-run investment fund, the Armenian National Interests Fund, before it was dissolved in August this year.

Irrigate LLC’s business appears to have boomed after Avinyan took office.

Tax records for the company for 2011 to 2023, obtained from the State Revenue Committee, show that Irrigate’s tax bill has been 12.5 times higher on average in the years since he became deputy prime minister, suggesting the company has brought in much higher revenues.

From the company’s founding through 2018 — the year of the Velvet Revolution — Irrigate LLC paid a total of 13.5 million drams ($31,000) in taxes, or an average of 1.7 million drams ($3,800) per year.

In 2019 to 2023, however, Irrigate paid over 106 million drams ($240,000) in total taxes, or an average of 21 million drams ($48,000) each year. The tax bills have grown over time — the largest was in 2023, at 41 million drams ($106,000).

No other information is available about Irrigate’s finances. The Armenian government publishes a list of the country’s 1,000 largest taxpayers, but Irrigate LLC is not among those companies.

In October 2023, Avinyan was appointed to his current position as mayor of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. According to Armenia’s voter registry, Avinyan is registered at the same address as his father and brother, which is also the corporate address for Irrigate LLC.

Roundabout State Support for Irrigate LLC

Irrigate LLC, which Avinyan founded in 2011, specializes in installing irrigation systems. It also leases farmland and produces a line of dried fruit gift boxes under the brand name Chiruchamich, which is sold in major Yerevan supermarkets.

Avinyan served as the company’s director and sole shareholder until shortly after he was appointed deputy prime minister. In June 2018, he transferred 100 percent of the company’s shares to his brother, a plastic surgeon, and handed the directorship to his father.

Later that year, the company was at the center of a public scandal when OCCRP member center Hetq reported that Irrigate LLC won a $35,000 government grant for dried fruit production.

Avinyan had applied for the grant in February, while he was still the company’s director, but Irrigate was declared the winner in June, after he became deputy prime minister and had started coordinating agricultural programs. Avinyan denied there was any conflict of interest and said that nearly all the stages of the process had been completed before he took office.

Irrigate LLC also appears to have benefited indirectly from another program coordinated by Avinyan, OCCRP and Civilnet found.

The program, launched in 2017 by the previous government, aimed at supporting the development of “intensive” orchards — densely planted plots designed to grow crops more efficiently.

The program originally included only loan subsidies, but in 2019 the Civil Contract government expanded the program to include direct payments as well.

Under the direct payments component, beneficiaries could receive up to 50 percent of the total cost of setting up an intensive orchard. The government gave out roughly 2 billion Armenian drams — just over $4.4 million — to 109 people and companies under this program.

Irrigate LLC was not one of these beneficiaries, but it was hired as a subcontractor by five of them, according to a response from the Ministry of Economy to questions from reporters. In total, these five beneficiaries received 305 million Armenian drams (about $620,000) to set up cherry, pear, peach, and apricot orchards.

Credit: Chris terryn/Alamy Stock Photo
Apricot orchards in Armenia.The ministry said that Irrigate LLC was hired to establish just over 29 hectares of orchards for these five beneficiaries, but declined to say how much of the money ultimately went to the company, citing privacy restrictions.

The five beneficiaries that subcontracted to Irrigate LLC received about 15 percent of the total amounts given out by the government under the program. Two ranked as the second and third largest recipients of the direct payments overall: Noyland AM LLC and Margets LLC, which received about $200,000 each.

Aram Margaryan, the director of Margets, said that he chose Irrigate from a list of about half a dozen pre-approved contractors “by chance.” He declined to say how much Irrigate was paid for the work.

Robert Azizyan, commenting on behalf of two other companies that contracted work to Irrigate, told Civilnet that Irrigate was chosen because of the quality of its work.

“I like the parks they have built,” Azizyan said. “In other people’s orchards, pillars fall, nets are torn.”

The other two companies did not respond to requests for comment.

Loan Subsidies

Under the program’s loan subsidy component, the government covered part of the interest on loans taken to set up intensive orchards, so the beneficiaries only had to pay a maximum of two percent.

Of the 88 beneficiaries of this subsidy, four subcontracted work to Irrigate LLC, according to the Ministry of Economy.

The ministry declined to disclose the names of the beneficiaries or the total amount of subsidies they received. But it did say that Irrigate LLC had been hired to plant 27.3 hectares of orchards under these subcontracts.

Beneficiaries are not allowed to receive both the direct payments and the loan subsidies for the same orchard, suggesting there was no overlap between the areas where Irrigate LLC was subcontracted to work.

As deputy prime minister, Avinyan was in charge of coordinating agricultural support programs. He oversaw at least one meeting in March 2019 to discuss the intensive orchard program, according to government minutes, though his input in the meeting was purely technical.