Thursday, October 21, 2004

Our court date went as scheduled. Though I’ve been in court a few times in my life in America, the Armenian/Artsakh court experience is unique. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that they don’t swear in the witnesses, having them swear an oath to tell the truth.

Anyway, after hearing both sides and within a matter of a half hour, it was decided that I would not be charged with a fine and will only pay what I had offered them in the first place and what I found was fair.

In short, the head of the pension fund stated that my accountant had asked him if it was possible to defer pension payments until we had an income. He said that he thought we were not work yet and had no one working for us at the time when she asked. When I was given the opportunity to ask him questions, I asked how he concluded that we had no one working for us? I asked him if we had no one working for us, were we expected to pay something to the pension fund? He said no we would not be. I then asked that does it then make sense to him that my accountant would come and ask him if we could defer payment? Before he could answer, I asked him that by her asking for his permission to defer payment was that not a clear indication that we did have people working for us? He didn't know how to answer the question.

When the judge asked if I had anything else to add, I told him that I have a recording of Ura that states that the pension fund did in fact know we had people working for us and that they agreed to allow us to defer payment. The judge said that it would not be necessary and rendered his decision, which the head of the Martuni pension fund said he was happy with.

So the pension fund case was settled in my favor and though it was a little bit of a disruption in my life, it gave me insight in how the legal system works.

One thing I am wondering is that now that it settled in my favor, will the main office in Stepanagert ask why I was forgiven of the penalty? And when they find out, will Henrik be relieved of his duty as the head of the fund in Stepanakert said he would be for doing what he did?

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