13:00 - 2.11.2020

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November 2, Fineko/abc.az. On 21 October 2015 and 30 March 2018, the criminal cases were initiated under Articles 192.2.3 (illegal entrepreneurship) and 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border) of the Criminal Code by the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the facts of illegal business activities of foreign citizens of Armenian origin in the occupied territories of Lachin, Kelbajar and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan.

ABC.AZ was informed at the Prosecutor General's Office that one of those criminal cases concerned Vejneli village in Zangilan district, which was occupied but recently liberated as a result of successful operations of our national army.

Thus, based on the resolution of the Investigative Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Taxes of Azerbaijan found out that the branch of Vallex Group, CJSC Base Metals, officially registered in Switzerland, received illegal income in the amount of AZN 301.918 million from deposits of precious metals in Vejneli village of Zangilan district in 2009-2017.

Swiss citizen Vartan Sirmakes, the financial investor of Vallex Group, its head Valery Medzlumyan, as well as Artur Mkrtumyan, the executive director of Base Metals, are charged under these articles. A preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen against them by court decisions and all three were put on the international wanted list by the investigative body.