Tsarukian was arrested in September 2020 after being charged with buying votes for his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) ahead of parliamentary elections held in 2017. An Armenian court freed him on bail one month later.
The tycoon, whose party had the second largest group in Armenia’s parliament at the time, said the case was “fabricated” in response to his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation voiced in June 2020. The authorities denied any political motives. Pashinian declared that the high-profile case is “one of the most important” in Armenia’s post-Soviet history.
The criminal investigation appeared to have stalled in the following months. In April 2022, then Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian ordered the National Security Service (NSS) to revive it.
The NSS and prosecutors claim that in the run-up to the 2017 polls Tsarukian paid a BHK candidate, Vazgen Poghosian, 90 million drams ($230,000) to buy 9,000 votes in Gegharkunik province.
In a 2020 interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Poghosian admitted receiving a hefty sum from the BHK leader. But he insisted that it was meant for covering the party’s election campaign costs, rather than handing out 10,000-dram bribes to Gegharkunik voters.
Tsarukian likewise denied any vote buying when he spoke to journalists after the first, brief session of his trial.
“The statute of limitations has long expired, and if I was guilty I would ask them to close the case under the statute of limitations,” he said.
Like other opposition groups, the BHK demanded Pashinian’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Tsarukian’s party failed to win any parliament seats in snap general elections held in June 2021. Tsarukian has kept a low profile since then.