The General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has revealed a transnational crime, as a result of which, criminal proceedings were instituted against 8 persons.

According to the investigation it was established that 6 persons with the directorial and managerial powers of 6 hotels operating in Georgia, in order to fraudulently misappropriate funds belonging to various individuals or legal entities, entered into a criminal deal with the defendants G.K. and K.A. and other members of the criminal group abroad.

In accordance with the plan developed in advance by the members of the criminal group, E.K., L.G., G.G., V.N., Sh.I., and L.D., on behalf of the companies in their possession and administration, which provided hotel services, opened bank accounts in Georgian banking institutions and registered as users of the POS terminal and “Geo Pay” payment system.

With this, they were given the opportunity to draw money from the card accounts and transfer them to the desired bank accounts by entering data from the bank cards of various foreign nationals in the POS terminal and “Geo Pay” payment system.

The defendants booked hotel rooms owned by them on behalf of non-existent customers through popular websites providing remote hotel booking service. When paying for artificially increased value of booked rooms, the defendants entered the data of illegally obtained bank cards of citizens of different countries in the POS terminal and “Geo Pay” payment system and thus draw a large amount of money from the card account.

After withdrawing from bank accounts, the amounts obtained through criminal means were distributed among the members of the criminal group in Georgia and abroad in accordance with the pre-agreed percentage.

With the above-mentioned action, the banking institutions operating in Georgia and the citizens of the United States of America suffered damages in the amount of 687 321 GEL