[5] In various cables sent in 2008, Joseph Pennington, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Yerevan, characterized Abrahamyan as being "regarded by outside observers – and many Armenians – as an unpolished, poorly educated and parochial figure, a crass nouveau riche whose brand of dirty-money politics, abuse of state "administrative resources", and cunning opportunism is in the worst tradition of recent Armenian politics",[citation needed] as "an oily, machine politician ... at the center of a purposeful effort to abuse agencies and offices of local government to arm-twist every vote he possibly can for the prime minister",[citation needed] the "chief operating officer of the dirtiest and most coercive tactics of Serzh Sargsian's presidential election campaign",[citation needed] and "an unsophisticated thug" whose "instincts are not progressive".

[citation needed] Also in 2008, US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch described Abrahamian as a politician who uses his political power to promote his business interests.

[citation needed] Abrahamyan's son, Argam, is married to a daughter of Gagik Tsarukyan, oligarch and Prosperous Armenia party leader.

A number of criminal cases were initiated against many former top officials, including the former president Robert Kocharian[7] and the late prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

[citation needed] Henrik (Jonik) Abrahamyan was arrested after a search of a former factory in the territory located in the village of Mkhchyan discovered a large number of weapons and ammunition, including 3 light machine guns, 7 machine guns AK-74, 2 SVD sniper rifles, 3 different types of rifles, 2 pistols and a large number of bullets of different caliber.

[citation needed] This factory was de facto owned by the former prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan, registered in the name of Ambik Gevorgyan, and was the framework in the case for dispersing demonstrations on 1 March 2008.

Despite the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution in a number of cases, decisions sent to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia to annul the previously concluded transactions sought to return these land plots to the communities.