Armenia’s anti-corruption appeals court has ruled to obligate the Anti-Corruption Court to initiate criminal proceedings against Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan. The decision was announced on April 3 by Ara Zohrabyan, rector of the Academy of Advocates, via his Facebook page.

Zohrabyan recalled that on December 4, 2024, a group of lawyers petitioned the Prosecutor General’s Office to launch a criminal investigation into alleged corruption-related actions by Hovhannisyan. However, on December 25, 2024, investigator B. Chilingaryan of the Anti-Corruption Committee declined to initiate proceedings.

Subsequent complaints were submitted to the Prosecutor General and later to the Anti-Corruption Court (Judge T. Davtyan), but both were rejected on January 7 and February 27, 2025, respectively. On April 3, 2025, the Anti-Corruption Appeals Court (Judge Karen Amiryan) overturned the February 27 ruling and issued a new decision compelling the public participant in the proceedings to initiate a criminal case.

The court deemed a report concerning G Coder LLC to be properly filed and cited serious grounds for investigation. According to the submission, on the day he was appointed Deputy Finance Minister on August 18, 2021, Hovhannisyan received a $1 million interest-free loan and a $50,000 donation, then used the funds to purchase 100% of the shares in Caritas Italiana CJSC. The shares were later transferred to "G Coder" LLC after a corporate restructuring on January 10, 2022. Hovhannisyan declared ownership of the shares at the end of 2022, but they no longer appeared in his 2023 declaration. The sole owner after the restructuring was Rubik Armenak Karapetyan, allegedly Hovhannisyan’s maternal uncle.

The court also noted that Hovhannisyan had loaned 52,614,000 AMD to G Coder and that the Armenian government granted the company a 1.5 billion AMD customs benefit on November 9, 2023. The court concluded that the information presented included signs of a possible criminal offense and that the Anti-Corruption Committee had failed to provide an adequate legal assessment of Zohrabyan’s report.

The decision stated: “The report regarding G Coder LLC contained information indicative of a potential crime. Investigator B. Chilingaryan, in refusing to initiate proceedings, failed to properly analyze and legally evaluate the content submitted by Ara Zohrabyan.”