Georgia Intensifies Efforts Against Global Fraud Scheme Involving Call Centers

| News, Economy, Georgia

In a statement on December 25, the Georgia Prosecutor General's Office declared that it had filed criminal charges against one organized group member, three global criminal organization coordinators, and one legal company. The Prosecutor General's Office said it had worked with Eurojust and the German authorities.

The Prosecutor's Office claims that the investigation showed that the organized group's members established a purported call center based on Georgian businesses. According to the statement, the call center employees used fictitious names to contact citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany by a pre-developed plan. They also gave false information about the location of their company and offered to participate in the electronic trading of securities, shares, commodity assets, currencies, and cryptocurrencies using electronic platforms created by the criminal group.

Per the Prosecutor's Office, the operators guaranteed consumers a substantial return should they engage in electronic trading. The statement stated, "In actuality, they fraudulently appropriated the funds allocated by the victims for electronic trading." The Prosecutor General's office claims that the appropriated funds were given the appearance of validity due to numerous fraudulent transactions on the bank accounts controlled by the criminal group and were then utilized to buy various assets, including real estate. According to the release, the organized group legalized illegal income, amounting to fraudulently acquiring tens of millions of GEL by the mentioned scheme.

Criminal proceedings for the legalization of illegal income, which carries a sentence of nine to twelve years in prison, have been initiated against all five of the defendants.

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