The Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia summed up general trends of crimes against economic activity, work carried out by the bodies of criminal prosecution in the direction of their detection, results of the functions of the prosecutor's during the preliminary investigation and trial of crimes of this nature for 2019.
According to the results, based on the materials prepared regarding crimes against the economic activity in the proceedings of the competent authorities of the Republic of Armenia, 931 criminal cases were initiated (including 279 in the Investigative Department of the RA SRC), which is by 37% more than in 2018. 269 criminal cases were commenced into proceedings (in 2018-177). This is due to both an increase of the level of public confidence toward the law enforcement bodies and active cooperation with the latter, as well as the implementation of operational-search actions.
In 2019, 1200 criminal cases were investigated (580 in the Investigative Department of the RA SRC) compared to 857 in 2018. That is, during 2019 concerning the criminal cases of an economic nature, the workload of preliminary investigation bodies and prosecutors was increased by 40%.
31 criminal cases in relation to 39 people with the indictment were sent to court. Moreover, compared with 2018 (22 cases in relation to 29 people) during the reporting year, the number of cases sent to court were increased by 8 or 36%.
From the criminal cases of an economic nature, examined in court by 16 cases, 18 people were convicted, from them 14 were sentenced to imprisonment. Moreover, compared to 2018 the number of completed cases with the indictment was increased by 23%, and convicted people by 29%.
During 2019, the detected damage caused to the state by criminal cases of an economic nature amounted to 21.1 billion AMD (from the mentioned amount 15.9 billion AMD by the Investigative Department of the SRC). From this amount, 9.5 billion AMD were restored (from the mentioned amount, 8.6 billion AMD by the Investigative Department of the SRC). For comparison, we should note that in 2018, the detected damage caused to the state by crimes of this nature amounted to 19.4 billion AMD (or 8.8% less), from the mentioned amount 8.6 billion AMD were restored.
In order to restore the damage caused to the state, in 2019, within the framework of various cases, arrests in the amount of 2.6 billion AMD were imposed on property and money of the accused.
In addition to the above-mentioned, with a view to restore the damage caused to the state by the investigated and completed criminal cases, the subdivisions of the Prosecutor’s Office filed lawsuits with the demand to restore 160 million AMD, which were satisfied.
The above-mentioned results of the criminal-legal fight against economic crimes are mainly conditioned on the one hand by state policy against the shadow economy, and on the other, by the consistent, planned and coordinated action of the bodies of criminal prosecution.
It is noteworthy that, on the basis of non-payment of taxes, duties or other obligatory payments 382 cases were investigated, which is by 188 or 33% less than in 2018. The reduction is due to an effective criminal policy and the creation of favorable economic conditions. This was also due to the changes in tax legislation. Besides, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office elaborated exact standards regarding the grounds for the initiation of proceedings by the above mentioned type of crime, in case of overcoming of which only materials were prepared.
