The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office has revealed another large-scale crime of call centers and initiated criminal prosecution against ten people for fraud and money laundering committed by an organized group.
The charges will be presented to the former Prosecutor General of Georgia, Otar Partskhaladze, and members of his criminal group – David Mikadze, Irakli Sekhniashvili, and Mikheil Chokheli, and the charges will be made personally known to Giorgi Mikadze, who is in prison for another criminal case. Eliso Kiladze, a member of the organized criminal group, is arrested in the same criminal case.
Indictments will also be presented to other members of the group – Givi Jibladze, Ben Anor, Tornike Janelidze, and Giorgi Kamladze, who actively cooperated with the investigation and not only admitted the crime committed, but also contributed significantly to the opening of the transnational crime.
According to the witnesses, the majority of these call centers belonged to a group of people who were financing various opposition media outlets from the revenue received, while a relatively small part of the call centers were protected by Grigol Liluashvili and Otar Parshaladze, through members of their closest circle.
In this case, a joint investigation conducted by the Investigation Service of the Georgia Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Finance has established that in 2020-2023, an organized criminal group with a contractual structure was operating in Georgia under the protection of Otar Parskhaladze, whose goal was to illegally obtain material benefits and then money laundering.
Members of the organized group established several legal entities in Georgia, whose base in Tbilisi, set up fraudulent call centers at different locations, with Russian, English, and German-speaking departments. Call center operators, according to executives, lured customers to fake trading platforms by promising to make a profitable investment, to engage in trading, and deceive customers by deceiving large amounts of money or cryptocurrency, and then placing, joining, and integrating illegal assets.
The functions of the members of the organized group included ensuring the proper functioning of criminal call centers, protection and protection of the illegal activities of the call center from law enforcers and other competing organizations, providing information support in case of detection, and providing the disclosure of the activities of the so-called “disobedient competitors”.
Specifically, Givi Jibladze, Ben Anor, Tornike Janelidze, and Giorgi Kamladze ensured the proper operation of the call center, made decisions on the expansion or change of the location of the call center, carried out active supervision of the work process, calculating income and expenses, issuing salaries and bonuses, as well as distributing tidings to partners and patrons. Calculation and division of palm trees.
Other members of the organized group – Giorgi Mikadze, David Mikadze, Irakli Sekhniashvili, and Mikheil Chokheli, through Otar Parskhaladze and his influences, provided the protection of the criminal activities of the call center, which meant protection from law enforcement and competing organizations. In addition, they also participated in the process of making important decisions necessary for the functioning of the call center.
It should be noted that in case of exposure of call center activity or such risk, Eliso Kiladze would ensure that criminal activity will be legally represented by disseminating appropriate information on various media platforms. Meanwhile, in order to identify competitor call centers that were not under their influence, Eliso Kiladze was planning to disseminate information about their location and the generation of employees, threatening to spread, and then creating conditions for blackmailing them.
For the activities provided, the protectors of influence and information, non-resident persons, received solid benefits every month from the money acquired by deception.
What has been determined only by the investigation at this stage, in 2020-2023, as part of criminal activity, members of an organized group deceptively acquired cryptocurrency belonging to more than two hundred foreign citizens, about 9.5 million US dollars.
Subsequently, to legalize illegal income, fraudulently acquired virtual assets by members, were distributed multiple transactions to various crypto wallets, which were lost by members of an organized crime group, and the cash received from the conversion of virtual assets was used for the needs of the organized crime group – salaries And giving bonuses, covering the ongoing costs of call centers, as well as accumulated in criminal activity The funds, as if legally generated by members of the group, were directed towards the purchase of real estate.
The charge against Otar Parshaladze, Giorgi Mikadze, David Mikadze, Irakli Sekhniashvili, Mikheil Chokheli, Eliso Kiladze, Givi Jibladze, Ben Anori, Tornike Janelidze, and Giorgi Kamladze, under articles 180 and 194 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, includes imprisonment from 9 to 12 years.
