Karlen Simonyan

Что мы знаем

ПОДТВЕРЖДЕНО Karlen Simonyan was born in 1987. He is the brother of Alen Simonyan -- the Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly and the subject of Left Behind #1. Karlen Simonyan is the Director of EuroAsphalt CJSC, a road construction company that received $343 million in government contracts between 2021 and 2024. This period coincides exactly with his brother Alen becoming Speaker of Parliament in August 2021.

EuroAsphalt was registered at their mother's apartment. A company that would go on to win $343 million in government road construction tenders operated from a residential address. The company barely existed before 2021. Then Alen Simonyan became Speaker, and EuroAsphalt became one of the largest recipients of government road contracts in Armenian history.

ПУБЛИЧНАЯ ЗАПИСЬ In January 2025, Karlen Simonyan declared EuroAsphalt bankrupt. $343 million in government contracts flowed into the company over three years, and then the company declared bankruptcy. The timing suggests asset shielding -- a common technique where profits are extracted during the operational period, and bankruptcy is declared to prevent creditors and investigators from recovering funds.

Karlen's wife, Ani Gevorgyan, was arrested. She is a former employee of Synisys -- an IT company with its own government contracts. The Simonyan family's exposure to government contracting spans multiple sectors.

Что показывают документы

THE $343 MILLION TIMELINE The timeline tells the entire story. Before 2021, EuroAsphalt barely existed as a government contractor. In August 2021, Alen Simonyan became Speaker of the National Assembly -- the second most powerful position in Armenia's parliamentary system. Immediately, EuroAsphalt began winning road construction contracts. Between 2021 and 2024, the company accumulated $343 million in government tenders. In January 2025, the company declared bankruptcy.

The sequence is: brother becomes Speaker, company wins contracts, money flows in, company goes bankrupt, money disappears. This is not a business cycle. This is an extraction operation with a planned exit.

ДАННЫЕ УТЕЧЕК Karlen Simonyan's personal email -- karlen.simonyan.1987@mail.ru -- appears in breach databases. More significantly, 19 EuroAsphalt employee accounts were compromised in data breaches. The password patterns found across these accounts include Russian fairy tale characters: "muromets" (from Ilya Muromets) and "nikitich" (from Dobrynya Nikitich). Fairy tale passwords for a fairy tale company -- a $343 million operation run from a mother's apartment with the security practices of a high school computer lab.

THE SPEAKER'S DECLARATIONS While Karlen Simonyan's company was processing $343 million in government contracts, his brother Alen -- the Speaker of Parliament -- declared zero properties and zero vehicles in his asset declarations. The Speaker of Armenia's National Assembly, whose brother's company received $343 million, officially owns nothing. He lives on Yerevan's most expensive street while declaring no real estate. Karlen declared bankruptcy. Alen declared nothing. Between the two brothers, $343 million entered and zero assets remain on paper.

The questions that remain unanswered: How did a company registered at a residential address qualify for and win $343 million in competitive government tenders? Were the roads that EuroAsphalt was contracted to build actually completed to specification? Where did the money go after the company declared bankruptcy? Were the tenders genuinely competitive, or were they directed?

Связи

The Simonyan operation is a classic family extraction scheme. One brother holds political power. The other brother holds the company. The contracts flow from the government the first brother controls to the company the second brother runs. The money enters through the company and exits through channels that bankruptcy makes difficult to trace.

Что это значит

$343 million is not a rounding error. It is a significant fraction of Armenia's total road infrastructure budget over three years, directed to a company that operated from a residential apartment and barely existed before the Speaker's brother registered it.

The bankruptcy declaration in January 2025 is the most telling element. Companies that legitimately earn $343 million in revenue do not typically go bankrupt unless the money was extracted rather than reinvested. Bankruptcy serves two purposes in this context: it shields whatever assets remain from creditor claims, and it creates a legal barrier to financial investigation. Auditing a bankrupt company is significantly more difficult than auditing an operating one. The timing -- immediately after the contract period ended -- suggests this was planned from the beginning.

The Speaker's zero-asset declarations complete the picture. Alen Simonyan declares nothing. Karlen Simonyan declares bankruptcy. Between the two of them, $343 million passed through their family's operations and left no trace in official records. Either the money evaporated, or it went somewhere that Armenian asset declaration forms cannot reach.

EuroAsphalt's 19 compromised employee accounts and fairy tale passwords reveal something about the nature of the operation. This was not a sophisticated construction company that happened to win government contracts. This was a vehicle -- minimally staffed, minimally secured, maximally connected to political power. The passwords tell you what the company was: a fiction dressed up as a business, processing real money through pretend infrastructure.

David Khudatyan (Left Behind #21) now controls the ministry that oversees these road contracts. The infrastructure pipeline continues. The only question is which company replaces EuroAsphalt now that its useful life has ended.

Карлену Симоняну

Your brother became Speaker in August 2021. Your company started winning road contracts immediately. $343 million in three years. From a company registered at your mother's apartment. With passwords like "muromets" and "nikitich" -- fairy tale characters for a fairy tale company.

Then January 2025 -- bankruptcy. $343 million flows in, the company goes bankrupt, and the money disappears. Your wife Ani Gevorgyan was arrested. Your brother Alen declares zero properties and zero vehicles while living on Yerevan's most expensive street. You declared bankruptcy while he declared nothing.

The pattern is clear: the Speaker controls the legislative agenda, the brother wins the contracts, the money moves, the company folds. When investigators follow the $343 million, will they find roads -- or offshore accounts?