The sprawling estate was bought by Armenian ‘Super Minister’ Gagik Khachatryan with bribes paid by a businessman, FBI says
The estate, located near the former Playboy mansion, was renovated in a French Normandy-style and boasts 11 bedrooms and 26 full or partial baths, and includes a pool, wine cellar, home theater and maids’ quarters, according to real estate listings.
According to the complaint, the house was bought for $14.4m in 2011 by a trust on behalf of Khachatryan and his two sons, who are all facing criminal charges in Armenia. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had attorneys in the United States who could speak on their behalf about the forfeiture request. No attorneys for them were listed in the complaint.Khachatryan, who was known as the “super minister” because of his many responsibilities, was chairman of Armenia’s state revenue committee from 2008 to 2014 and was minister of finance from 2014 to 2016.
The US government contends that wealthy and influential businessman Sedrak Arustamyan, who also is charged in Armenia, paid Khachatryan and his family more than $20m in bribes in exchange for favorable tax treatment of his businesses, and that some of that money went into buying the Holmby Hills estate.
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