State Security Service head hails efforts of Georgian agencies in combating int'l fraudulent scheme

Grigol Liluashvili, the head of the Georgian State Security Service, on Thursday hailed the “genuine contribution” of the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office and the ministries of Internal Affairs and Finance to combating an international fraudulent scheme reportedly involving David Kezerashvili, the wanted former Defence Minister of Georgia under the United National Movement Government. 

In his press comments in the Parliament, the official said the representatives of his agency were also involved in the investigation, which he said was also continuing in the international format. 

The officials also claimed the "domestic participants" of the scheme had been “actively engaged” in spreading disinformation against the law enforcement officials, including him, and added he had won the case in “all instances of the court” and the critics would have to deny the allegations publicly, “including through the [affiliated] TV channels, where they had voiced the allegations”. 

In April the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia 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 organisers of the transnational crimes in particular. 

It said it had conducted “large-scale operations” in dozens of locations on the territory of Georgia in October 2021 and November 2022, noting dozens of involved individuals were searched along with their flats, cars and workplaces, with hundreds of electronic devices, documents and a “large amount” of money seized as a result.

Earlier that month, Eurojust said the scheme had cost at least 33,000 victims in Europe an estimated €89 million, and added it had coordinated raids along with Europol at the request of the German authorities, with five suspects arrested and 15 locations searched in Bulgaria, Romania, Israel and Georgia in March, in follow-up to actions against the online scam in 2021 and 2022. The operation in Georgia was headed by the Prosecutor General’s Office and saw 400 law enforcement officers involved, it added. 

Eurojust said the criminal network behind the fraud had attracted investors with professional-looking banners on websites, publicity via social media and fraudulent call centre operations in various European countries. 

In its report earlier in April, the British Broadcasting Corporation said the Panama Papers - the 11.5 million documents leaked in 2016 to show financial dealings of wealthy individuals and officials across the world - had shown Kezerashvili to be at the centre of the scheme in which operators contacted citizens with offers of investing their savings in profitable businesses before appropriating their funds.