The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, raised concerns about the lack of proper accountability for confiscated assets following a coup attempt. During the discussion of the 2024 state budget in the National Assembly on November 16, Pashinyan emphasized the need for transparency in handling these seized funds.

While acknowledging the legitimacy of the allegations, Pashinyan highlighted that the confiscated assets, whether in the possession of thieves or improperly classified, are not easily accessible for the government to seize and redirect outside of Armenia. These funds are often hidden in various locations and taken out of the country.

Pashinyan also revealed that instead of directly distributing the confiscated wealth, those involved in embezzlement invest it in different forms, including in Karabakh, textbooks, weapons of mass destruction, and investigations related to political opposition. Millions of dollars are spent on legal and propaganda wars.

To regulate the return of confiscated wealth, the government has developed its own mechanisms that have recently started to yield preliminary results. Examples of reclaimed assets include the ‘Golden Palace’ hotel, the Yerevan office of the OSCE, thousands of hectares of land in Isakov, and hundreds of hectares of land related to the Karabakh movement. To evade detection, a significant portion of the seized wealth is being transferred abroad through large-scale operations involving tens of thousands of movable properties, 200 real estate properties, and 270 sanctioned corporate entities that cannot be sold. Pashinyan emphasized that this process will persist, asserting that the government’s political influence will remain intact.