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Employees of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) have uncovered a large corruption scheme involving the former CEO of the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), which cost the state some 15 billion drams (over $30 million).

The criminal investigation has revealed that the former CEO of the company devised a criminal scheme related to the sale of copper concentrate which was carried out through companies registered in the UAE in order to hide the real value of the transaction and avoid taxes from 2017 to 2019, the SRC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The copper concentrate was sold to the intermediary firms at a price below the current market value, but the real buyers purchased it at the market price.

Money from actual buyers of the copper concentrate was transferred to accounts registered in the UAE. Some of which was then transferred to Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine CJSC, but the lion's share of the profits went directly to the director of the enterprise.

The damage amounting to 15,017,640,469 has been fully recovered.

“It is noteworthy that the damage caused to the state was recovered not at the expense of the ZCMC assets, but from the personal funds of the former director general, who is a defendant in the criminal case,” the statement said.