The business activities of Artak Tovmasyan The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) has started to ask questions as to why Tovmasyan and his Russian partner have invested in a factory declared bankrupt Hetq’s colleagues at YLE has revealed that courts in Helsinki and Amsterdam are hearing cases regarding the business transactions of the factory and disagreements among the owners. Our Finnish colleagues don’t rule out that Armenian-Russian investment in the small Finnish town of Juankoski is connected to monies appropriated from the First Republic Bank based in Moscow Russia’s Central Bank withdrew the bank’s license.) A criminal search is now underway in Russia for the bank’s last owner One of these indictments note that a company owned by Artak Tovmasyan was involved in the transactions Tovmasyan was born and is still registered in Yerevan as a citizen of Armenia He’s served as Honorary Consul of Armenia in Crimea since 2002 He serves as chairman of board of directors of "Sozvezdie" National Fund of Science Culture and Sports Development and Support He serves as a Director of FIM Group of Companies and has been an adviser to the Chairman of Executive Committee of CIS since 2005 Tovmasyan has close ties to government officials in Armenia Armenia’s Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan awarded Tovmasyan a medal for financing the construction of a mini-football field at the police educational center in Yerevan President Sargsyan attended celebrations marking Tovmasyan’s fiftieth birthday In addition to diplomacy, Tovmasyan has several business interests. His business project in Armenia is the rebuilding of Yerevan’s Dvin Hotel When the Stromsdal cardboard company closed in 2008 the town of Juankoski (population 5,000) lost 227 jobs Finland’s Ministry of the Economy and the Juankoski Municipality hired a consultant to locate an investor for the company a businessman with Ukrainian roots who represented the Dutch company Pehami B.V. said he wanted to get the cardboard company up and running again But he had no experience running a company producing cardboard The Juankoski Municipality found out that Samoriz would be investing his own money The town’s mayor confessed as much to Hetq’s Finnish colleagues company could only raise 6 million Euros between them The balance was to be invested by Finnvera a Finnish state-owned financing company providing loans Finnvera allocated 6.250 million Euros in credit Commercial banks refused to loan any money towards the bankrupt cardboard factory The Juankoski Municipality decided to step in and serve as a guarantor for Samoriz Getting the factory up and running cost 18.5 million Euros It operated for two and a half years at a loss of 22 million Euros the factory petitioned for a restructuring of its debt the Northern Savonian Regional Court forgave more than 90% of the factory’s debt This resulted in a 10 million loss for Juankoski taxpayers and the Finnish government In June of this year a new group of investors arrived in Juankoski They announced that they had taken over Pehami B.V. as per the decision of the Amsterdam court The newcomers said they were the owners of Milini Holdings Milini Holdings has invested 11 million Euros in Pehami B.V (Disagreements between the owners continue to be heard in Helsinki and Amsterdam courts) An Amsterdam court has found that Milini Holdings financed the relaunch of the Juankoski factory with a convertible loan of 6 million Euro loan and that it has been converted Hetq, along with its colleagues at the Finnish Broadcasting Company and the OCCRP, has found out that the shareholders of the Cypriot Milini Holdings are Al. Telepnyov and Belize-registered Threepwood Investments. Attorney Alexandr Skoblia told our Finnish colleague that Threepwood belongs to Artak Tovmasyan. In 2014, Milini Holdings received 5 million Euros from Threepwood Investments. The Cyprus Registry shows a 2.5 million Euro loan (11/6/2014), but Skoblia mentioned 5 million in one of his replies. Gagik Balayan (behind bars): http://kommersant.ru In August 2016 by judgment of Arbitration court of Moscow District implied that deals entered between First Republic Bank, JCL and company Threepwood Investments should be considered as deals with preference, that may cause a preferred settlement comparing to other creditors of the bank. By judgments of arbitration courts the above deals were cancelled in relation to the settlement, but the same time the debts of the Bank to Threepwood Investments was restored. The court’s decision noted that Artak Tovmasyan and Gagik Balayan are childhood friends. Tovmasyan refutes these charges. In a statemen to Hetq and FBC, Tovmasyan claims he only knows Balayan for the past 18-19 years. Consulting with financial advisers, they decided to take a portion, with the idea of formulating the remainder at a later date. According to Tovmasyan, the bank’s license was pulled three weeks after the formulation of this portion of the loan portfolio. “How are such cases usually handled in Russia? All signed transactions are declared void six months after the licenses are called back. This is because the Deposit Insurance Agency of Russia enters the scene afterwards and starts to manage everything. Our company found itself in this situation. We petitioned the courts and won one case. Later, the appeals court ruled to declare the transfer void. We agreed and became a creditor. As we see, Artak Tovmasyan has much experience working with offshore companies. The project to relaunch Yerevan’s Dvin Hotel was proposed by the Cyprus registered CCG Caucasian Communication Group Limited. According to data Hetq has culled from the Cyprus Corporate Registry, CCG Caucasian Communication Group Limited is equally owned by two other offshore companies – Berfarq Investments Limited (Belize) and Jadis Services Inc. (British Virgin Islands). Tovmasyan admits that Berfarq belongs to him. Iosif Kobzon, a singer in Russia, is behind Jadis Services. Tovmasyan says that due to health issues, Kobzon is pulling out of the Dvin Hotel project. Tovmasyan also owns a 50% interest in the advertising firm Vestdia Media LLC, according to Armenia’s State Register of Legal Entities. The other 50% is owned by a company with the same name registered in Russia. The business activities and partners of Artak Tovmasyan The fall of the Yanukovych government in 2014 negatively impacted Tovmasyan’s businesses in that country. Tovmasyan had close links with former Ukraine President Viktor  Yanukovych and his predecessors. Tovmasyan also served as an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of Transportation and received a medal from the Ukraine president in 2004. Tovmasyan and Ukraine MP Oksanna Yelmanova founded the asset management firm FIM Capital. After the 2014 protests in Ukraine (Euromaidan Revolution), the company’s business declined and Yelmanova no longer serves in parliament. Tovmasyan has no started a project to produce biofuel in Russia. Some will be piped to the cardboard factory in Finland. The businessman/honorary counsel believes that with the right management the factory can not only be relaunched but that it will be profitable. Tovmasyan doesn’t rule out the possibility of selling his Finnish assets in 5-6 years and leaving the country. Top photo: Aerial view of the Juankoski cardboard factory; Artak Tovmasyan January can be the cruellest monthMany restaurants in small towns are struggling to survive as food prices rise and fewer consumers have money to spend on dining and drinking out January is a particularly tough time for many local entrepreneurs Open image viewerImage: Yle12.1.2014 16:20•Updated 12.1.2014 16:23For many restaurants January is the slowest time of year for business and pay off bills after the holiday season has been suffering from the closure of the Premium Board cartonboard factory in late 2012 -- and this is reflected directly in restaurant cash registers who runs the riverside Ruukin Kievari restaurant says that the price of food is reaching the pain threshold for many customers With a standard lunch going for nine or 10 euros she says many say they can no longer afford to eat out Iskanius says that restaurateurs have to cut corners wherever possible the owner of the Vintti restaurant says there is only one way to get through the ups and downs of the restaurant business: by serving great food Aki Hiltunen says his aim is to offer people an alternative to staying home on their sofas Open image viewerImage: YleHiltunen says he does not see any particular great threats to the sector -- but that of course the overall economic situation has an impact director of the Service Union United (PAM) in Eastern Finland says that the biggest challenges are in rural municipalities It's a big question as to how small restaurant entrepreneurs can survive and provide jobs The union represents many employees in the hospitality industry Hiltunen says he gets through hard times by working harder himself - sometimes more than 100 hours a week -- while Iskanius urges those who can afford it to dine out to help support local business owners and jobs farmers are worried about the arrival of a potentially devastating disease that is making inroads into the country Now researchers are trying to use hemp plants as a weapon against the fungus Open image viewerThe variety being planted differs from that known as marijuana.5.7.2017 9:46Red stele is a fungal disease that strikes the roots of strawberry plants destroying rootlets and leaving the soil unusable for as many as 30 years So far the blight has only been found on a few farms including five recently in the North Savo region Strawberry farmer Toni Hämäläinen from Juankoski has this summer had to uproot more than a hectare of strawberry plants due to the fungus That translates into a loss of at least 20,000 euros for this year who took over his family's farm last year Open image viewerImage: Sakari Partanen / YleThe roots of plants hit by disease rot and the inner part The fungus can be spread to the plants through water or even on tractor tyres Researcher Harri Kokko of the University of Eastern Finland says the disease is now clearly spreading in the country with at least 20 cases in North Savo in recent years The Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira) says the first case was identified in 2012 Open image viewerImage: Sakari Partanen / Yle"This is an extremely nasty disease that certainly means the destruction of a strawberry field and an interruption in strawberry farming rainy conditions it can very quickly destroy a large portion of the plants when it strikes," Kokko tells Yle hemp may be coming to the rescue of farmers hit by red stele Fibrous hemp is being planted on Hämäläinen's infected strawberry field The variety being planted is different from that known as marijuana "The idea is to find a plant that could purify the soil and remove this fungus Next spring we'll see whether the disease is still present in the field," says Kokko Kokko says that hemp is strong and fast-growing enough to push out other plants and hopefully get rid of any remnants of the infected strawberries It also puts in deep roots that make the soil more porous and allow winter frost to permeate deeper Also taking part in the operation to rescue Hämäläinen's strawberry business is researcher Laura Tomppo from the University of Eastern Finland "Hemp has been shown to have beneficial properties as a crop rotation plant," she says Open image viewerImage: Sakari Partanen / Yle"So now we're testing it for this purpose," she says "We're certainly expecting good results from this," she says Meanwhile Hämäläinen has been in contact with forest products giant Stora Enso about the possibility of using his hemp fibre in cardboard manufacturing And the university is teaming up with the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and the Berry Know-How Centre for the EU-backed BerryGrow project which is aimed at teaching farmers how to recognise crop diseases and finding new ways of combating them 26 residents to be movedAccording to Attendo's regional director the closure reflects the nationwide shortage of staff in the healthcare sector Image: Sami Takkinen / YleEgan Richardson22.7.2021 18:11Private home care provider has closed a unit in the Kuopio region due to a shortage of caregivers Muurutvirta nursing home in Juankoski will have to close its doors as it can't find enough qualified staff Muurutvirta's operations were being closely monitored by the Regional State Administrative Agency for Eastern Finland and the municipality of Kuopio since April Attendo's representatives said that the unit's operations would have to be reduced as they had only two-thirds of the staff they needed Attendo's Regional Director for Eastern and Central Finland said the Muurutvirta nursing home employed a total of eighteen carers The company tried to address the shortages by rotating permanent carers and temporary staff but the efforts were not enough to keep the home running smoothly "We would have needed five to seven more nurses on a permanent basis to keep the unit running," Haatalainen said All 26 nursing home clients will be transferred to homes run by the local council "The situation is unfortunate for residents staff and the municipality alike," Haatainen said The city of Kuopio has already begun transferring the Muurutvirta residents to other units all replacements will be arranged by Friday noon "The care of the customers will be assigned to 24-hour care vacancies and the city's own services," said Kauko Pursiainen the City of Kuopio's supervisory inspector Attendo had come under fire during the Covid pandemic after outbreaks killed residents in its homes Police probe 11 coronavirus deaths at Kiuruvesi care homePublished 20202020Sources: Yle