On September 6, the US Marshals Service, Southern District of New York, issued a writ of execution against Vardan Ayvazyan and in favor of Global Gold Mining (GGM) LLC. Consequently, according to the decision in favor of GGM, thirty seven million five hundred and thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight US dollars and two cents ($37,537,978.02) must be paid by Vardan Ayvazyan. According to the facts mentioned in the ruling, Vardan Ayvazyan, a former Armenian Minister of Nature Protection, made corrupted and inappropriate demands on one of the affiliates of Global Gold Mining, which was the licensee of the Hankavan mine. The company informed the respective bodies of Armenia and the United Stated. Consequently, the company lost its control over the Hankavan mine because of Ayvazyan.
The company involved international and local lawyers to hold accountable those who had been engaged in illegal and corrupted activities against its affiliate.
On November 7, 2006, the company gave a 30-day term of good will for negotiations, which was a precondition of the Share Purchase Agreement signed in 2003 for filing a petition for international arbitration. It should have been carried out with the three known sellers/shareholders and formerly secret shareholder Vardan Ayvazyan who also coordinated other shareholders.
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During a conversation with Inga Zarafyan, the head of the EcoLur informational NGO, www.aravot.am tried to find out whether they had known about the facts mentioned in the ruling and the confrontation between Global Gold Mining and Vardan Ayvazyan for a long time. She replied that they had been involved in this issue in 2006, when uranium had been discovered around Getik. They called an alert and Vardan Ayvazyan, the then Minister of Nature Protection, also made a strong statement in that regard.
As Inga Zarafyan notes, that story did not end at the time. She stated that neither the company nor Vardan Ayvazyan saw it through. She also added, “If the accusation is groundless, let Vardan Ayvazyan at least demand a denial or demand that the company apologize to him. A political decision is needed here and we, the society, are also interested what, at the end of the day, Vardan Ayvazyan who is not an ordinary citizen, but a politician is doing after all this fuss and what our politicians are doing. The RPA should have at least made a political assessment of this litigation, at the end of the day, this is a serious litigation; it should have either defended its MP or responded in some way.”
Then Ms. Zarafyan stated, “The whole thing happened in the Republic of Armenia, didn’t it? Doesn’t the RPA care that there has been such a serious accusation against its MP? Why doesn’t the RPA demand that an investigation be conducted?”
Making abstract assessments of the incident, Ms. Zarafyan recapped, “In reality, the mining industry is full of corruption risks.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
