Armenian government refuses to provide data on suspicious ZCMC deal
The Armenian government has refused to provide data on the suspicious deal related to the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), Sona Ayvazyan, Executive Director of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, told a news conference on Wednesday, responding to a question by Panorama.am about the possible corruption risks in the deal.
"We do not have sufficient information to make any conclusions; we demanded access to the document, but were denied it,” she said.
Ayvazyan explained that they asked the government and the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine to provide them with the documents relevant to the matter, but both of them failed to give a proper response.
"Most likely, we will lodge an appeal with the court,” she noted.
Earlier on September 30, it was revealed that the Industrial Company, a GeoProMining Armenia subsidiary, acquired 60% of the ZCMC shares and then granted 15 percent of that stake to the Armenian government.
Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Project Director at the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, told Pastinfo in October that the deal to sell 60% of the shares to Roman Trotsenko, owner of the GeoProMining group, was not transparent and no further clarifications were provided.
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