PM Garibashvili: former UNM official Kezerashvili presumably behind scam call centres
Garibashvili claims that Kezerashvili supposedly organised a criminal investment network operating as call centres. Photo: Prime Minister's press office
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has said that the former official of the United National Movement (UNM), David Kezerashvili, allegedly stands behind the fraudulent call centres.
Garibashvili claims that Kezerashvili, who held the position of the minister of defense of Georgia under the UNM government, supposedly organised a criminal investment network operating as call centres.
It has been confirmed, and several foreign media outlets have also reported that behind those call centres, presumably, stands Mr. Kezerashvili. He used to have call centres in Ukraine and probably still does, Garibashvili added.
Garibashvili noted that the society will soon learn ‘additional interesting details’ regarding the case.
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote in March 2020 about the scheme of English-speaking ‘telemarketers’ who convinced victims from over 50 countries to put their money in fake investments.
The newspaper discovered that the international fraud factory was linked to a company called Milton Group, which has its headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Officially the company works with data programming and financial services. Hundreds of telemarketers sit side by side, making phone calls to all over the world in their hunt for new victims. They offer lucrative investments in cryptocurrencies and stocks, Dagens Nyheter reported.
Manual of tricking the victims into making investments. Photo: Dagens Nyheter
How can the scam call centres be connected with the former UNM officials?
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published an extensive investigation regarding the scam call centres operating from Kyiv in spring 2020.
OCCRP noted that the fraudulent activities were supposedly related to Milton Group, which also owned call centres in Albania, North Macedonia, and Georgia.
OCCRP further revealed that a Georgian-born Israeli citizen Davit Todua, who is presumably linked to Milton Group’s operations, apparently has business ties with the UNM’s former officials David Kezerashvili, Gia Getsadze, and Petre Tsiskarishvili.
Todua and Kezerashvili co-own Project Partners, a real-estate and construction firm that is based out of a neighboring office building in Kyiv as Milton Group. Its head is Gia Getsadze, a former deputy justice minister in both Georgia and Ukraine.
Project Partners, in turn, co-owns a construction and civil engineering firm, Elitekomfortbud, with another former Georgian official, Petre Tsiskarishvili, a [former] minister of agriculture, OCCRP wrote.
OCCRP has found no direct evidence about the former UNM officials’ involvement in the scam call centres. However, Kezerashvili confirmed in an email ‘that he was a business partner of Todua.’
What is known about the international criminal investigation by now?
The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation reported that Georgian, German, and Israeli authorities dismantled a criminal network which defrauded ‘victims of at least tens of millions of euros.’
In addition, Law360 published an article about the arrest of Georgian and Israeli online scammers, who convinced their victims to invest in ‘fraudulent financial products.’
On October 21, Georgian law enforcement officials arrested seven people who ‘fraudulently embezzled millions of euros from German citizens and laundered illegal income.’ They allegedly set up dozens of fake call centres to perform fraudulent operations.
Kezerashvili has been on the run since 2012. He fled Georgia after the UNM lost the parliamentary elections to Georgian Dream (GD).
The former defense minister currently holds a 51% stake in opposition-minded Formula TV.
The Georgian law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with Germany, have arrested seven members of an international criminal group in Georgia which ‘fraudulently embezzled millions of euros from German citizens and laundering of illegal income.’
The Ministry of Defence of Georgia is filing a lawsuit against the former defence minister under the United National Movement (UNM) government David Kezerashvili and former head of the State Procurement Department Alexander Ninua, demanding compensation of €5 million for embezzlement, announces the Ministry of Defence.
Georgia’s former defence minister under the United National Movement (UNM) government David Kezerashvili, who holds a 51% stake in opposition-minded Formula TV, pledges he will appeal a recent verdict by the Georgian Supreme Court against him in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The State Prosecutor’s Office of Israel for Tax and Financial Crimes has plans to bring charges against four individuals, including a close relative of Georgia’s former, currently wanted defence minister David Kezerashvili, for evading taxes on $11 million in income from defense deals in Georgia under the United National Movement government between 2007 and 2009.
The Head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, has filed a lawsuit against Mtavari Arkhi and Formula TV channels after the media outlets aired reports alleging links between him and the criminal case dating back to October and relating to fraudulent operations set up by a group of Georgian and Israeli citizens in Georgia.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has instructed Minister of Finance Lasha Khutsishvili to investigate activities of call centres in the country, following a lawsuit stemming from allegations related to an October case of fraudulent operations set up by a group of Georgian and Israeli citizens in Georgia.
Five individuals have been arrested, with wider proceedings launched against a group of 17 persons, by the Prosecutor's Office and interior ministry for extortion of tens of millions of GEL from foreign citizens and money laundering.
A total of 46 call centres operating in Georgia have suspended their activities while being investigated by the Ministry of Finance for alleged “illegal activities”, Lasha Khutsishvili, the Finance Minister of Georgia, said on Monday.
The prosecutor general’s office of Georgia on Wednesday said it had solved a transnational crime involving fraudulent call centre services together with law enforcement agencies of seven partner countries.
The British public broadcaster BBC on Wednesday revealed its investigation into a fraudulent “call centre” scheme involving David Kezerashvili, a wanted former Defence Minister of Georgia in the United National Movement Government, in a report that detailed a global network of a scam operation targeting customers.