Citing unnamed sources, "Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian has spent his summer holiday in the city of Monte Carlo, extensively gambling in its world-famous casinos. He is said to have been accompanied by Minister for Local Government Hovik "the mouse" Abrahamian, Transport and Communications Minister Andranik Manukian and millionaire businessman Gagik Tsarukian. The paper claims the chief of the Armenian customs service, Armen Avetisian, had to wire Sarkisian a large amount of cash after the latter "lost his money in the casinos." Defense Ministry's press service, Seyran Shahsuvarian, refused to comment on the information. Abrahamian ("the mouse"), for his part, confirmed his visiting Monte Carlo, but insisted that he was there with his family and did not gamble. Manukian made similar comments.