YEREVAN (AP)–Armenia’s former minister of light industry was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $500,000 in the highest reaching corruption case in Armenia’s seven years of independence.
The court also said it was confiscating half of Rudolf Teimurasian’s property.
Teimurasian was minister of light industries when China granted Armenia a $5 million loan for industrial development. In what became known as the "China case," he and a group of accomplices were accused and convicted of stealing $4,098,000 of the money.
Teimurasian was fired in 1992–the year after the loan was granted and the theft was uncovered. Eventually–just under $1.4 million of the stolen money was returned to the federal budget–authorities said.