Armenian law-enforcement authorities have closed a criminal case into illegal campaign financing by the ruling Civil Contract party, despite clear evidence of violations documented by independent journalists and confirmed by the state’s own anti-corruption watchdog.
Civilnet.am, working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), revealed in March 2024 that Civil Contract systematically funneled large sums into its 2022 local election campaigns under the names of ordinary citizens who never authorized such donations. Infocom.am had earlier reported similar irregularities during the 2023 Yerevan municipal elections, in which Civil Contract claimed to have raised 506.5 million drams ($1.3 million) — much of it in the form of maximum-allowed donations of 2.5 million drams each.
Civilnet’s investigation found that nearly 70 percent of the party’s reported campaign funds came from these maximum donations. The outlet randomly interviewed 31 of the 140 reported contributors and discovered that nearly half denied making any donation at all. Many of the listed contributors were either linked to government officials or were ordinary residents of Yerevan who could not plausibly afford such sums.
Despite this evidence, prosecutors refused to pursue charges, claiming no financial irregularities were found. The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), which opened a criminal case under orders from the Prosecutor-General’s Office, later closed it quietly at the end of last year. The ACC has refused to explain why the documented violations did not result in criminal charges.
The state Commission on the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) — the body tasked with overseeing political finance transparency — formally objected to the closure and successfully challenged the decision in a Yerevan court, which ordered that the investigation be reopened. Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetyan appealed the ruling, and court proceedings on her appeal remain ongoing.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly promised to keep business and politics separate since coming to power in 2018 and pledged that Civil Contract would be funded through small donations from ordinary citizens. The findings of the Civilnet/OCCRP investigation, along with the state watchdog’s confirmation of campaign finance violations, indicate that the party’s actual fundraising practices relied on illegal funneling of money through proxy donors, effectively circumventing Armenia’s campaign finance law.
