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YEREVAN, 31 July. /ARKA/. A criminal case with 12 defendants accused of the embezzlement of 412 million drams of state funds intended for the intensive orchard development programme in Armenia's Ararat region has been referred to a local court, the Investigative Committee of Armenia reports.br/pp
According to the case, one of the residents of Ararat region from July 2021 to March 2023 was heading a criminal group, who prepared false documents and submitted estimates with inflated prices, thus stealing 412.3 million drams./pp
An attempt was also made to steal another 757.5 million drams, but it failed. The criminal scheme was exposed in time./pp
At the beginning of the year it emerged that two criminal cases on fraud and abuse of power in the Ministry of Economy were initiated./pp
On 30 January, Deputy Minister Ani Ispiryan was dismissed on suspicion of involvement in fraudulent distribution of subsidies for intensive orchards./pp
On 14 February, Minister Vahan Kerobyan announced his resignation. He is one of the defendants in the criminal case on abuse of official powers, along with several other officials of the Ministry of Economy, as well as the head and employees of private Synergy company./pp
On 16 February, Kerobyan was put under house arrest, which expired on 17 June. --0--/pp nbsp;/p
