Samvel Karapetyan, leader of Armenia’s main opposition party, has been remanded in custody for one month on embezzlement and money laundering charges linked to Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), a utility company at the centre of a dispute with the government.
Yerevan’s Anti-Corruption Court ordered his detention on Thursday, 5 November, after Karapetyan was arrested a day earlier by the country’s National Security Service, Armenian media reported.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said authorities had carried out simultaneous searches at 65 addresses and arrested 36 people on Wednesday as part of the investigation.
Among the properties searched was the home of Karapetyan’s nephew, Narek Karapetyan, who leads Strong Armenia’s parliamentary faction. Vardan Makaryan, an ENA board member, was also detained.
Investigators accuse Karapetyan of heading a criminal group involving senior ENA managers who allegedly used their positions to embezzle more than $180 million, laundering the funds through front organisations.
The Russian-Armenian billionaire was first arrested in June 2025 on money laundering charges and accusations of publicly calling for the violent overthrow of the government. He was subsequently placed under house arrest.
Karapetyan acquired ENA in 2015, before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power.
The Armenian government took control of the utility a month after Karapetyan’s arrest in 2025 and nationalised it in October 2026.
Pashinyan said the government planned to hand ENA’s management to an international company but had no intention of privatising it.
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