TBC Founder Khazaradze says Interior Minister sent him a letter to blackmail
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, March 5
TBC Bank founder Mamuka Khazaradze says that Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia sent him a letter in November 2018, prior to the second round of presidential elections, which listed demands to the Bank and included blackmail if the demands would not have been fulfilled.
“The letter which was sent by Gakharia said that if we did not meet the demands, our reputation will be destroyed both in and outside of the country,” Khazaradze said on Monday when he was invited to speak in Parliament.
He refused to speak about the content of the letter and said that he will make it public when a parliamentary commission is created to investigate the case.
Khazaradze said that he told the employees of the Prosecutor’s Office and a judge regarding the letter when he was summoned for interrogation regarding the case a couple of months ago.
“However, no investigation was launched,” Khazaradze said.
Khazaradze did not say it directly but stated that the “deliberate campaign against him” could be related to the 2.5 billion Anaklia deep Sea project.
He says that when he was summoned for interrogation which took place with the presence of a judge in 2018, he provided all the documentation proving the legality of the transaction and requested from the Prosecutor’s Office not to make public statements.
“The reason was that we were scheduled to sign two important documents regarding the project with two foreign banks on 16 January and any speculation could harm the agreement. Both the Prosecutor’s Office and the judge agreed. However, on 9 January the Prosecutor’s Office made the statement about possible money laundering, which was absurd, as they were not able to name possible wrongdoers or those who were affected by the transaction,” Khazaradze said.
He stated that if all the questions are not answered regarding the case the Anaklia project will not be carried out, as this is the demand of the international institutions which may invest in the project.
Khazaradze has also demanded the resignation of the head of the National Bank of Georgia as he is “biased” in decision-making.
Khazaradze says that the 17 million USD, which is mentioned in the case investigated, he and another founder of the bank Badri Japaridze took as a loan from Avto Tsereteli, a businessman with whom they had a friendly relationship, as the bank faced problems in 2007.
Khazaradze said that from his part Tsereteli had a separate loan of $17 million taken from the bank for his business he could not cover, as many companies faced problems and were bankrupted due to the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.
“That is why the loan was written off. We have written off 100,000 loans over the past 10 years,” Khazaradze said.
The National Bank of Georgia says that its decisions regarding the demand of resignation of Khazaradze and Japaridze and fining the Bank for the violation of interest conflict-related rules were “absolutely legitimate.”
Gakharia stated that a “privileged businessman has tried to gain immunity through gossiping from the parliamentary tribune.”
“I never write letters, I say my view openly to those who I deal with,” Gakharia said.
He said that everyone will have to be responsible “before their obligations and words.” o
The Prosecutor’s Office says that Khazaradze will be summoned for his statement concerning Gakharia.
The opposition has demanded from Gakharia to come to parliament to answer questions and then resign.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office stated earlier in January 2018 that its Financial Monitoring Service launched a study of financial assets of TBC Bank, its client companies, bank administrators and particular shareholders in May 2018, which revealed that there were “signs of money laundering”.
“We launched the investigation into money laundering on 2 August 2018. The case concerns developments in 2008 when LTD Samgori M and LTD Samgori Trade received a 17 million USD loan in an accelerated manner from TBC Bank without providing any real estate,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The office reported that when the money was placed on the accounts of the companies, head of TBC Mamuka Khazaradze and another representative of the bank Badri Japaridze took the same amount of loan as physical entities from TBC.
The Prosecutor’s Office says that at the end of 2008, TBC, without providing any genuine reasons, wrote off the debt of the companies and in 2012 completely freed the companies from any financial obligations before the bank.
NBG stated that the reason for its demand on the resignation of Khazaradze and Japaridze was the violations found in the Bank transaction made in 2007-2008.
NBG says that they found the violation after the law enforcement agencies addressed the National Bank of Georgia.
The opposition claims that the founder of the ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili has his interests to the Anaklia project and the campaign to “discredit Khazaradze” is part of his personal concern.
