On Oct. 27, 2023, Maestro Sergey Smbatyan was acquitted of fraud charges with the criminal prosecution against him has ended.

In an official letter from the prosecutor obtained by OperaWire, the letter notes that the case was terminated.

Additionally, Smbatyan said, “As you probably learned from the news, the process that could have had only one outcome was resolved today, and that was the clarification of the misunderstanding that was unnecessarily publicized and the denial of the accusations against me. I thank everyone who stood with me during the last months and waited for this day with me full of faith. Your trust inspires and forces [me] to move forward.”

Back in July, the conductor was arrested in Armenia for fraud and the General Prosecutor’s Office alleged that Smbatyan’s actions led to a loss of one billion drams for the state and that the 300-square-meter plot of the Yerevan Tchaikovsky Music School was stolen. Additionally, “the department announced that the ‘Sochocenter’ company proposed to construct a multi-functional complex called ‘Book World’ in honor of the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing and Yerevan’s recognition as the world book capital in 2012. The company also offered to build a new boiler house and concert hall for the Tchaikovsky school at its own expense.”