New disinformation operation targets Armenian government with corruption claims
Anna Hakobyan, the wife of the Armenian Prime Minister, has been 'accused of draining 3.4 million dollars from a children's cancer fund'. At least, that's what the Trump Fact News account declared on X on August 14.
The French-language account with more than 150,000 followers backs up its claims with a one-and-a-half-minute video edit. The video accuses Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's wife, Anna Hakobyan, of embezzling this sum while chairing City of Smile – a charity dedicated to supporting children with cancer – between 2018 and 2020.
In a second tweet, Trump Fact News also shared a link to an article on the Euleaks[.]eu website, that supposedly revealed the information.
The article and the video claim that the accusations come from Armenian lawyer Sergei Harutyunyan. Since late June, Harutyunyan has been defending Armenian bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who succeeded Hakobyan as head of the City of Smile foundation in 2020.
Galstanyan was arrested on June 25 on suspicion of a coup and became one of Pashinyan's main political opponents. But the lawyer says Galstanyan was arrested just as he was about to expose the alleged corruption 'scandal' within the foundation.
Several other pro-Trump accounts also shared the allegations, including @IvankaNews, the English-language account supporting the daughter of the American president, whose post garnered 350,000 views. Other online users with pro-Russian leanings, such as the Portuguese user Leandro Romao, also shared what has been described as a scandal on August 14.
Each of these accounts shares the video in a first post, then follows up with the article in a second post.
'No information substantiating the corruption claims'
However, no information corroborates the claims made in the video and the article published by the EULeaks alleged news site. Multiple observers have identified the information as fake.
Our team contacted the Armenian branch of the international anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, which monitors all corruption cases in the country. They said they did not possess 'any information that would substantiate the corruption claims presented in the piece".
The allegations have also been refuted by Armenian lawyer Arsen Babayan, a member of Harutyunyan's law firm. As indicated by the Armenian fact-checking media outlet FIP.am, Babayan stated that his colleague 'never made the statement mentioned in the article' in a Facebook comment in response to a post that shared the false claim.
Our team reached out to Harutyunyan, but has not yet received a response.
FRANCE 24 journalists' identities stolen
Euleaks turns out to be a recently created fake news site. A search of the site's domain name shows it was purchased on August 12, 2025, just one day before the publication of the article sharing the false claim.
The website also includes dozens of articles on international news, which were likely rewritten with AI from existing English-language news articles.
The common thread in all these articles is that they falsely credit FRANCE 24 journalists as the authors. For instance, James Creedon, a former journalist from FRANCE 24, allegedly wrote the article that made the false claim against Hakobyan. On August 13, he supposedly wrote a total of 13 articles on European news.
Six FRANCE 24 journalists have had their identities stolen. None of them have actually contributed to the Euleaks website.
Armenia targeted by disinformation campaign
It's impossible to officially tie this operation to a specific disinformation network. However, the fake site mirrors the tactics used in other Russian disinformation campaigns previously documented by the FRANCE 24 Observers team. These campaigns aim to spread false information using fake media outlets that copy the style of traditional news sources. In early July, a fake site called 'Courrier France 24' (which means "France 24 mail" in French) shared false claims about French uranium waste in Armenia.
In this particular case, the perpetrator of the fake news reused a domain name previously used in 2016 by green members of the European Parliament. At that time, they launched a platform for whistleblowers to share documents of public interest. However, according to a collaborator interviewed by the outlet Intelligence Online, the platform "did not achieve the hoped-for success" and was shut down in late 2017.
In recent months, Armenia has become a target for Russian disinformation campaigns, along with other former Soviet Union countries, as noted by a number of observers. 'These operations are pivoting away from Ukraine and Zelensky and are now focusing their efforts on other countries such as Armenia and Moldova,' Darren Linvill, a disinformation expert at Clemson University, told our team.
In early August, a similar disinformation operation targeted the pro-European Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The campaign involved impersonating a journalist from the American media outlet OK! Magazine. The fake article accused the president of illegally purchasing sperm samples from homosexual celebrities, just a few weeks before crucial legislative elections that could impact the country's potential integration into the European Union.
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New disinformation operation targets Armenian government with corruption claims
In mid-August, multiple accounts with ties to pro-Trump and pro-Russian networks alleged that Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan embezzled 3.4 million dollars in a children's cancer fund corruption scandal. However, their claims are based on a fake article published on a bogus news website created just a few days before. Anna Hakobyan, the wife of the Armenian Prime Minister, has been 'accused of draining 3.4 million dollars from a children's cancer fund'. At least, that's what the Trump Fact News account declared on X on August 14. The French-language account with more than 150,000 followers backs up its claims with a one-and-a-half-minute video edit. The video accuses Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's wife, Anna Hakobyan, of embezzling this sum while chairing City of Smile – a charity dedicated to supporting children with cancer – between 2018 and 2020. In a second tweet, Trump Fact News also shared a link to an article on the Euleaks[.]eu website, that supposedly revealed the information. The article and the video claim that the accusations come from Armenian lawyer Sergei Harutyunyan. Since late June, Harutyunyan has been defending Armenian bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who succeeded Hakobyan as head of the City of Smile foundation in 2020. Galstanyan was arrested on June 25 on suspicion of a coup and became one of Pashinyan's main political opponents. But the lawyer says Galstanyan was arrested just as he was about to expose the alleged corruption 'scandal' within the foundation. Several other pro-Trump accounts also shared the allegations, including @IvankaNews, the English-language account supporting the daughter of the American president, whose post garnered 350,000 views. Other online users with pro-Russian leanings, such as the Portuguese user Leandro Romao, also shared what has been described as a scandal on August 14. Each of these accounts shares the video in a first post, then follows up with the article in a second post. 'No information substantiating the corruption claims' However, no information corroborates the claims made in the video and the article published by the EULeaks alleged news site. Multiple observers have identified the information as fake. Our team contacted the Armenian branch of the international anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, which monitors all corruption cases in the country. They said they did not possess 'any information that would substantiate the corruption claims presented in the piece". The allegations have also been refuted by Armenian lawyer Arsen Babayan, a member of Harutyunyan's law firm. As indicated by the Armenian fact-checking media outlet Babayan stated that his colleague 'never made the statement mentioned in the article' in a Facebook comment in response to a post that shared the false claim. Our team reached out to Harutyunyan, but has not yet received a response. FRANCE 24 journalists' identities stolen Euleaks turns out to be a recently created fake news site. A search of the site's domain name shows it was purchased on August 12, 2025, just one day before the publication of the article sharing the false claim. The website also includes dozens of articles on international news, which were likely rewritten with AI from existing English-language news articles. The common thread in all these articles is that they falsely credit FRANCE 24 journalists as the authors. For instance, James Creedon, a former journalist from FRANCE 24, allegedly wrote the article that made the false claim against Hakobyan. On August 13, he supposedly wrote a total of 13 articles on European news. Six FRANCE 24 journalists have had their identities stolen. None of them have actually contributed to the Euleaks website. Armenia targeted by disinformation campaign It's impossible to officially tie this operation to a specific disinformation network. However, the fake site mirrors the tactics used in other Russian disinformation campaigns previously documented by the FRANCE 24 Observers team. These campaigns aim to spread false information using fake media outlets that copy the style of traditional news sources. In early July, a fake site called 'Courrier France 24' (which means "France 24 mail" in French) shared false claims about French uranium waste in Armenia. In this particular case, the perpetrator of the fake news reused a domain name previously used in 2016 by green members of the European Parliament. At that time, they launched a platform for whistleblowers to share documents of public interest. However, according to a collaborator interviewed by the outlet Intelligence Online, the platform "did not achieve the hoped-for success" and was shut down in late 2017. In recent months, Armenia has become a target for Russian disinformation campaigns, along with other former Soviet Union countries, as noted by a number of observers. 'These operations are pivoting away from Ukraine and Zelensky and are now focusing their efforts on other countries such as Armenia and Moldova,' Darren Linvill, a disinformation expert at Clemson University, told our team. In early August, a similar disinformation operation targeted the pro-European Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The campaign involved impersonating a journalist from the American media outlet OK! Magazine. The fake article accused the president of illegally purchasing sperm samples from homosexual celebrities, just a few weeks before crucial legislative elections that could impact the country's potential integration into the European Union.
