Two days before the elections, the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia said that it had conducted searches in three alleged so-called call centers. The Service stated that the searches of the named facilities were based on the judge’s decision.
The statement follows reports of several searches conducted by the Ministry’s Investigation Service. Those searched include two employees of the American think-tank Atlantic Council, an American business process outsourcing company Concentrix, citizen Valeri Tkeshelashvili, and stand-up comedian Onise Tskhadadze. Although the official statement from the Ministry of Finance does not name any of them in the statement, the investigation into call centers is likely related to several, if not all, of these searches.
The Ministry’s Investigation Service raided the Tbilisi headquarters of Concentrix, a Fortune 500 American business process outsourcing company. Employees were not allowed to enter the office during the search, and only managers were present. “This big misunderstanding is going to hurt Georgia globally,” the Concentrix representative said. The company entered Georgia in 2021, and since then has been working to support foreign investment.
In addition, the Investigation Service searched the house of Valeri Tkeshelashvili‘s parents in Kutaisi, a city in western Georgia. Tkeshelarshvili was told that the search was related to the so-called fraud call center case, but Tkeshelashvili denies any involvement. He links the search to his oppositional stance. He also said that all technical equipment had been searched and seized.
Another search was conducted at the house of stand-up comedian Onise Tskhadadze. His brother says that the investigators cited Onise Tskhadadze’s work in an international company, which he did not name, as the reason for the search. He also said that all the equipment, including the brothers’ laptops, were taken.
According to the Ministry, the searches are related to the call center case already under investigation, but it says “we are dealing with finance on a much larger scale.” The statement adds: “In addition, some of the people working in the facilities are linked to similar criminal call centers identified in previous periods.”
“The representatives of Investigation Service, who arrived at the scene, discovered various types of equipment, devices and documentation containing certain electronic information, which were seized in line with the procedures,” the statement states.
Earlier in the morning reports spread about the searches of the houses of two employees of Atlantic Council, Sopo Gelava and Eto Buziashvili, whose personal belongings, laptops, as well as other technical equipment of their family members, were taken away by the representatives of the Investigation Service. This particular case is being investigated under three different articles under the Criminal Code, namely money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion.
The circumstances suggest that all the cases are probably related, but the links between them are still cryptic. “Let’s wait for the information from the investigation. This information may be very interesting for the society,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists earlier in the day.
We are trying to get more details on the cases. The news may be updated.