Georgian Prosecutor's Office continues to fight transnational call centre fraud with European partners

Georgia’s effective and successful participation in combating transnational crime was “several times indicated” by international partners, including the German Prosecutor's Office and Eurojust, the state body highlighted, stressing it was its “one of the main directions” to fight the “widespread” crime in Europe. Photo via pog.gov.ge

Agenda.ge, 22 Apr 2023 - 15:38, Tbilisi,Georgia

The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia on Saturday said it “intensively” continued to fight against transnational crime involving fraudulent call centre services, together with law enforcement agencies of European partner countries and under the coordination of the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, in order to expose involved individuals and especially organisers of the transnational crimes.

Georgia’s effective and successful participation in combating transnational crime was “several times indicated” by international partners, including the German Prosecutor's Office and Eurojust, the state body highlighted, stressing it was its “one of the main directions” to fight the “widespread” crime in Europe.

Within the framework of the joint investigation group, a number of investigative activities were carried out, including “large-scale operations” in dozens of locations on the territory of Georgia in October 2021 and November 2022, the Office said, noting dozens of involved individuals, as well as their apartments, cars and workplaces, were searched in the effort, with hundreds of electronic information carriers, documents and a “large amount” of money seized as a result.

With the involvement of around 400 Georgian law enforcement officers in special operations, the leaders and members of the organised criminal groups have been arrested, and criminal prosecution has been initiated against the legal entities involved in the crime.

The Eurojust “highly evaluated” the special operation carried out in Georgia in October 2021 in cooperation with Germany, during which seven members of an international criminal group, which had fraudulently embezzled “millions of euros” from German citizens, were arrested in Georgia.

In 2022, the Prosecutor’s Office conducted two “large-scale” operations, charging dozens of individuals and several legal entities, with about 60 German and 300 Georgian law enforcement professionals involved in the operation.

This March, the Office also took special measures against fraudulent online platforms and persons involved in alleged crimes, as a result of which a criminal group was identified, whose actions caused €89 million of damage to 33,000 citizens of various European countries.