Armenia’s former deputy prime minister, Tigran Avinyan, who was swept to power by the country’s “Velvet Revolution” in 2018, became a huge beneficiary of its where his family company went on to indirectly benefit from a state agricultural program he oversaw. Nine beneficiaries of an agricultural program subcontracted work to a company owned by the family of Tigran Avinyan, the official overseeing the program. Five of these beneficiaries received about US$620,000 worth of direct payments to set up intensively cultivated orchards. Two of those companies ranked as the second and third largest recipients of direct payments overall.

In 2018, Tigran Avinyan rode a wave of anti-government protests to the heights of Armenian political power.

That was the year the country’s “Velvet Revolution” ended two decades of rule by the long-dominant Republican Party and installed the opposition Civil Contract in its place. Avinyan, who was just 29 at the time, was catapulted from a lowly Yerevan city council member to deputy prime minister.

While his political star was rising, Avinyan’s family business was also benefiting from state funds doled out in programs that he oversaw, an investigation by OCCRP and its partner Civilnet has found.

During Avinyan’s tenure as deputy prime minister from 2018 to 2021, nine beneficiaries of an agricultural program under Avinyan’s purview subcontracted work out to Irrigate LLC, a company Avinyan founded and which was owned by his brother at the time, according to government records.

These beneficiaries — which included companies and at least one individual — collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a special type of orchard designed to maximize fruit production. It is not clear how much Irrigate LLC ultimately received for its work.

Civil Contract’s leader, the current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, entered office promising to strengthen democracy and eradicate........

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