Prosecutor's Office solves scheme defrauding US citizens, offshore operation targeting French companies
The targets were instructed to transfer their money to bank accounts of a company the group had founded in Georgia, with one of the individuals and their associates taking possession of about $1.8 million from the victims. Photo: Prosecutor's Office of Georgia
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The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia on Friday said it had solved two transnational crime cases, with one targeting citizens of the United States from Georgia and the other involving a foreign citizen defrauding French-based enterprises from the country.
The body said the first crime involved a criminal group placing advertisements online promoting investment with high interest rate and attracting funds from American citizens.
The targets were instructed to transfer their money to bank accounts of a company the group had founded in Georgia, with one of the individuals and their associates taking possession of about $1.8 million from the victims.
The fraudulently appropriated funds were then laundered through legal entity accounts operated by one of the accused in various countries, with the operations involving about $1.7 million.
In the other case, money was appropriated from enterprises operating in France by a foreign citizen who had registered an offshore company and opened enterprise accounts in a banking institution operating in Georgia.
The Office said the defendant had sent false messages to banking institutions in France on behalf of their clients, to facilitate transfers of €445,000 of the victims’ funds by the banks to the accounts owned by the individual.
The Investigation Service of Georgia’s Finance Ministry on Wednesday charged one individual for a fraudulent scheme that registered pregnant women as employees of an enterprise for the purpose of receiving state packages for maternity leave support.
Law enforcement professionals from the Investigative Department of the Georgian Finance Ministry on Friday searched a location in central Tbilisi in the latest operation against fraudulent transnational call centre schemes.
The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday said it had summoned a former investigator for an interview following his claims that contradicted the official version of events in a highly publicised 2020 death of a 23-year-old woman.
The Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office on Friday said it had charged one individual with fraudulent appropriation of citizens’ funds in a scheme that promised travel and employment in countries abroad and used cryptocurrency platforms in appropriation of funds from the targets.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia arrested seven members of the organised crime group on Saturday as part of the international investigation against transnational crime involving fraudulent call centre services, in cooperation with the law enforcement agency of Switzerland and under the coordination of the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, the body said on Sunday.