Investigation“Swiss Secrets” | Armen Sarkissian, who resigned from the Armenian presidency a few weeks ago, had four accounts in Zurich. One of them should have been included in his declaration of interests.
This is information that risks tarnishing the image of Armen Sarkissian a little more, after his hasty resignation from the presidency of Armenia against the backdrop of the golden passport scandal. Confidential data from “Switzerland Secrets” reveals that the former President of Armenia held more than 10 million Swiss francs (8.1 million euros) at Credit Suisse. Information that the person concerned had not considered useful to make public, in contravention of the rules of Armenian transparency.
Among the four Swiss bank accounts he held, together with members of his family, three date back to when he was retired from public affairs. In the 2000s, after having held the posts of Prime Minister and Ambassador, Mr. Sarkissian had converted to the private sector in the United Kingdom. He is reputed to have enriched himself considerably during this period, advising multinational oil, finance and telecoms companies, industrial groups, as well as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It was said to be essential in the major oil and gas “deals” concluded by Westerners in Russia and the Caucasus.
This is the fourth Credit Suisse account of Armen Sarkissian which raises the most questions, since he remained active after his return to the diplomatic corps. Endowed with 10.6 million Swiss francs (8.6 million euros) at the time of the appointment of its holder – for the third time – as ambassador to the United Kingdom, in 2013, this account remained active until January 2016. There is nothing illegal here, but Armen Sarkissian failed to include this account in the multiple declarations of interests he filed for the years 2013 to 2016.
Questioned by our consortium on this oversight, Armen Sarkissian provided confused explanations. He first asserted, incorrectly, that his accounts “were closed long before” his appointment, before insisting on the fact that he exercised his functions as ambassador on a voluntary basis, which, according to him, protected him from any conflict of interest. But he did not clarify the reason why 8 million euros of his assets appear in his declaration, and not his millions in Switzerland.
“Became a citizen without knowing it”
This information is only the latest in a long list of secrets that the press is gradually uncovering about the former Armenian president. Shortly after his election, in 2018, our colleagues from the site Hetq had detailed the immense web woven by Mr. Sarkissian in the world’s business community, in clear contradiction with his official biography. In November 2021, the same Armenian media had revealed the links of the Head of State with a French SCI owner of a pretty Parisian property near the Arc de Triomphe, bought for more than 7 million euros, ten years earlier.
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