The General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia continues active cooperation with Eurojust and competent agencies of partner countries in order to identify fraudulent call centers operating internationally.

“With the support of Eurojust, the Prosecutors Office has been actively cooperating with the competent authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany and other countries for many years to combat the activities of so-called fraudulent call centers.

As a result of effective international cooperation with Eurojust and the competent agencies of Germany, the General Prosecutor’s Office initiated criminal prosecution against three organizers of a transnational organized criminal group, a member of an organized group and a legal entity.

As a result of the investigation conducted, it was established that the members of the organized group arranged the so-called call center on the basis of enterprises based in Georgia. In accordance with a pre-developed plan, the employees of the call center contacted citizens of Germany, using fictitious names, providing false information about the location of their company and offering to participate in electronic trading of securities, shares, commodity assets, currencies and cryptocurrencies using electronic platforms created by the criminal group.

Operators assured users that with their help, in the case of electronic trading, they would be able to make a substantial profit. In fact, the funds allocated by the victims for electronic trading were fraudulently obtained by them.

In order to give the illegally obtained funds a legal face, as a result of multiple fictitious transactions on the bank accounts under the control of the criminal group, the money was included in the economic turnover for the purpose of purchasing various properties, including real estate.

By the mentioned scheme, the organized group legalized the illegal income amounting to tens of millions of GEL fraudulently acquired.

The criminal prosecution was commenced against all five defendants on the fact of legalization of illegal income, which provides for 9 to 12 years of imprisonment.

Also, by the investigation, the immovable properties owned by the defendants worth several million GEL were seized, thus they were not given the opportunity to further dispose of them and conceal them.

In order to ensure confiscation of the said properties of criminal origin in favor of the state, the Prosecutor’s Office will carry out appropriate legal procedures.

It should be noted that the organizers of the crime have already been convicted by the Regensburg Regional Court of Germany for commercial and group fraud.

The Prosecutor’s Office will apply to the Tbilisi City Court with a motion to use imprisonment as a preventive measure against the defendants within the time limit established by the law. The Prosecutor’s Office, together with international partners, continues the investigation in order to identify and expose other individuals and legal entities engaged in the activities of so-called fraudulent call centers in different countries, including the organizers of transnational crimes.

We would like to remind the public that in recent years, as part of the ongoing investigation of various criminal cases in the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, as a result of cooperation with the competent agencies of foreign countries, criminal prosecution has been initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office against a number of individuals and several legal entities, who are also accused of fraud committed by an organized group and legalization of illegal income”, - reads the statement of the ahency.