The 10th member of the criminal group sentenced.

The Court sentenced the citizen of Romania Adi Johan Blaga for secret embezzlement of large amount of property as well as for legalizing illicit income by coming to a prior agreement with a group of people. 
It has been stated during the preliminary investigation that two organized criminal groups engaged in theft of money from ATMs by using false cards acted in the territory of Armenia from July to August 2008. The members of the group were mainly the citizens of Romania who lived in London and their head was Marius Lupu and Kornel- Konstantin Stengachu.

The criminal group headed by Stengachu from August 18 to 27 stole 77 517 000 AMD from the ATMs that belonged to 6 Armenian banks.

According to the evidence brought in the Court the citizen of Romania Adi Johan Blaga was involved in Kornel- Konstantin Stengachu's criminal group and swindled money from the ATMs by using false bank cards.

Blaga's role was to take the false copies of bank cards to Armenia, swindle money with these cards, to book hotel rooms and rent cars for the members of the criminal group and to organize the transfer of the theft from Armenia to Great Britain.

Thus, Kornel- Konstantin Stengachu gave a great amount of false copies of bank cards to Adi Johan Blaga and together with him came to Yerevan by the flight London-Yerevan on August 18, 2008 and was involved in the activity of the criminal group.

The criminal group was found on August 27, 2008 and the preliminary investigation of the criminal case was carried out by the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia.

On June 3, 2009 the part of the criminal case on Adi Johan Blaga was suspended as his location was not known. The latter was wanted by international police.

By the efforts of the law enforcement bodies on May 25, 2010 Adi Johan Blaga was arrested in Stuttgart airport in Germany and on the General Prosecutor's Office's demand on January 25, 2011 was transported to Armenia under guard and passed to the law enforcement bodies of Armenia.

On January 25, 2011 the suspended criminal case on Adi Johan Blaga was restarted and he was charged according to the Articles 177, part 3, point 1 and 190, part 2, point 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

On April 30, 2011 the preliminary investigation of the criminal case was over and on May 5, 2011 the criminal case was sent to the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts.

Based on the evidence obtained during the preliminary investigation the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts on October 28, 2011 found Adi Johan Blaga guilty according to the Articles 177, part 3, point 1 and 190, part 2, point 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

Pursuant to the part 4 of the Article 66 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia that is by partial summation of punishments Adi Johan Blaga was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment.

Adi Johan Blaga and his defender filed an appeal to mitigate the punishment which is in process. 
Ten Rumanians were arrested and sentenced within this criminal case.

Another fugitive Dragosh Ionut Batezatu was found on January 7, 2011 in the city Erlangen in the Federal Republic of Germany. He was arrested and on the General Prosecutor's Office's demand on January 21, 2011 was transported to Armenia under guard and passed to the law enforcement bodies of Armenia.

On January 21, 2011 the suspended criminal case on Dragosh Ionut Batezatu was restarted. He was charged according to the Articles 177, part 3, points 1 and 2 and 190, part 3, point 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. On December 23, 2011 the criminal case was sent to the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts. The trial is underway.