US Department of Justice praises Georgia's contribution in revealing money laundering scheme
The US Department of Justice has praised the 'significant assistance' provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia. Photo: The Prosecution Service of Georgia.
Tweet 
Share
The US Department of Justice has praised the 'significant assistance' provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia in seeking forfeiture of more than $20 million in assets relating to unlawful use of the US financial system to evade and violate the Iranian sanctions, says the US Department of Justice.
The US Department of Justice reported that the civil forfeiture complaint alleges that Kenneth Zong, a U.S. citizen, conspired with three Iranian nationals to evade the prohibitions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR) by engaging in false, fictitious and fraudulent transactions which were designed to unlawfully convert and transfer Iranian owned funds to a Korean financial institution, equivalent to approximately $1 billion.
These funds were held in Korean bank accounts and converted into more easily tradable currencies, such as USD, through US financial institutions and laundered into and through a host of shell company accounts in multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Korea", says the department.
Approximately $20 million in funds traceable to this scheme were used by Zong’s co-conspirators to attempt to purchase a hotel in Georgian capital city of Tbilisi in 2011 and 2012. The proceeds of these funds and this attempted transaction are the subject of the forfeiture complaint.
A complaint is merely an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law", says the department.
The FBI and IRS-CI are investigating the case.
The department also appreciates the assistance provided by UAE authorities and the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea.
Georgian law enforcers have detained a citizen of Ukraine wanted by Interpol since August this year. The detained female aged 34 was being wanted for alleged crimes committed in France.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has detained an Azerbaijani citizen who has been wanted by Interpol since 2015 for murder. The individual, born in 1989 and identified only as T.G, was detained in Akhalkalaki, a town in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe–Javakheti.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has detained an Azerbaijani citizen who has been wanted by Interpol since February 2019 for fraud.
Georgia has become the first country in the South Caucasus which signed an agreement with the EU agency Eurojust, created in 2002 to help EU member and several non-member countries cooperate more effectively to combat terrorism and serious crimes, the Georgian Justice Ministry reports.
Three Georgian banks – TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia and ProCredit Bank – have been named in the FinCEN Files investigation into suspicious global money laundering which was published over the weekend. The FinCEN Files are leaked documents from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), that were investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and published on September 20, 2020.
The General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia is investigating a potential money laundering case concerning transactions worth tens of millions of US dollars in various currencies. As part of the investigation the officers of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia searched several objects in Tbilisi to confiscate documents and electronic devices.
The General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has uncovered a transnational fraud scheme and launched criminal prosecution against two individuals.