International Chamber of Commerce speaks about “concentrated attack” on TBC Bank
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, February 19
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Georgia) speaks about the “concentrated attack” on the founders of TBC Bank, Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze.
“Various governmental agencies, including the Prosecutor's Office, the Revenue Service, the Financial Monitoring Service and the National Bank have been implementing a concentrated attack on the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JSC TBC Bank,” the statement reads.
The ICC says TBC Bank is the largest financial organization in Georgia presented on the London Stock Exchange, adding the ”deliberated attacks” on it have significantly damaged the credibility of Georgia and its financial sector.
“It is our opinion that such actions of the government are on the personal agenda of Ivanishvili on the development of TBC Bank and Anaklia port,” the statement reads, referring to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder and Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, who is often referred as an informal ruler of the country.
The International Chamber of Commerce urges the government to stop “attacks” on TBC Bank and its founders.
“We also call on Chairman of the National Bank Koba Gvenetadze to oppose the government's pressure to maintain the independence of the National Bank,” the ICC stated.
Three days ago the Association of Banks of Georgia also released a statement, expressing support to TBC.
The statement reads that the decision of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) to suspend authority for the TBC Bank's Supervisory Board Chairman Mamuka Khazaradze and his Deputy Badri Japaridze will not affect TBC Bank's future development and its strategy.
“The Association of Banks of Georgia supports TBC Bank, all its employees and calls on the stakeholders to refrain from excessive insinuations”, reads the statement.
Moreover, TBC Bank has filed a suit requesting the abolition of the National Bank's administrative acts.
"TBC Bank disagrees with the National Bank's position that the Bank violated the law regulating the conflict of interests in 2007-2008," the statement reads.
Georgian Prime Minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze called on everyone to refrain from “political speculations.”
“The National Bank made a decision as a regulator and naturally, I cannot evaluate the content of the decision, but I know one thing - the National Bank is always guided by very high professional standards and this is a position shared by all international financial institutions,” he said.
On February 14, NBG stated that after examining transactions conducted by TBC Bank 2007-2008, it was revealed that Khazaradze and Japaridze violated the requirements of the legislation regulating conflict of interests, therefore it suspended the authority of the two men.
“The decision is triggered by violations of the requirements of the legislation regulating conflict of interests, which are linked to 2007-2008 transactions. The NBG decided to suspend the signatory authority for the TBC Bank's Supervisory Board Chairman and Deputy. At the same time, the TBC Bank's shareholders' meeting was tasked to recall them from the supervisory board within 2 months,” the statement reads.
Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into one of the transactions of the bank, made 10 years ago. The agency noted the case concerns “illicit income legalization and money laundering.”
TBC denies allegations. Mamuka Khazaradze said the disputable transaction was a legal banking operation, checked several times by auditors or the governmental bodies.
