Trial of former US Embassy employee accused of fraud worth half a million manat begins

A trial has been held in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes on the criminal case against Rafig Goyushov, a former employee of the economic department of the US Embassy in Azerbaijan. As reported by Oxu.Az, during the court session chaired by Judge Anar Sadigov, the defendant’s personal data was clarified.

Rafig Goyushov’s lawyer stated that the US Embassy has no claims against his client. In connection with this, he asked to return the criminal case for additional investigation. The court did not grant the lawyer’s petition.

The criminal case has been referred to the court for review. The court hearing to consider the case is scheduled for September 17.

It is noted that Rafig Goyushov, who worked at the embassy for about 20 years, is accused of fraud worth more than half a million manat. The criminal case was investigated by the Main Directorate for Combating Cybercrime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the investigation materials, one of Goyushov’s criminal schemes was related to the misappropriation of funds allocated for the temporary accommodation of ambassadors and other employees arriving from abroad. For example, in cases where an apartment was rented for a guest for 200 manats per day, the accused indicated the amount of 400 manats in the documents. As a result of these and similar machinations, more than half a million manats were illegally appropriated.

Following the preliminary investigation, Rafig Goyushov was charged under Article 178.4 (fraud on an especially large scale) of the Criminal Code. Police supervision was chosen as a preventive measure before the trial.

The US Embassy was recognized as the injured party.

This post is also available in: Russian