The officers of the Main Division for the Fight against Organized Crime under the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor’s Office detained 11 people as a result of joint operative and investigative measures carried out within the framework of the international cooperation.

“The following persons have been indicted: J.H., (born in 1992) K.K., (born in 1997), G.M., (born in 1999), G.G., (born in 1992), M.T., (born in 1997), G.L. (born in 1994)., VN (Born in 1996), A.M., (born in 1993) A.G. (born in 1997), K.I. (born in 1986) and G.B., (born in 1997);

The committed crime envisages from 9 to 12 years of imprisonment.

The was established by the investigation that in the spring of 2019, Israeli citizen J.H., along with accomplices, formed an organized, structured organized criminal group that for a long period of time was engaged in the fraudulent appropriation of funds belonging to foreign nationals interested in cryptocurrency trading and cash distribution. In the illegal activities, the organizers gradually involved a number of people fluent in foreign languages who systematically contacted potential victims and offered to purchase cryptocurrency by cashless payment. In case of interest, the members of the group registered them remotely on the relevant website, after which they purchased cryptocurrency in their own name, which was later transacted to the accounts available not to the victims but to the accounts of the group members. By means of the above-mentioned method, the members of the criminal group fraudulently embezzled large sums of money belonging to dozens of citizens of foreign countries, including Germany, Austria, China, Netherlands and Norway. The amount of damages established for this stage amounts to 620 000 Euros.

At the same time, some members of the organized group legalized illegal income, in particular, bought expensive vehicles and real estate, which were seized by the investigation. As a result of the measures taken, more than 2 million GEL was also found and seized from the bank accounts of the head of the organized group - JH.

Investigation on the facts of illegal acquisition-storage-use of personal data by a organized group, fraudulent appropriation of large sums of money belonging to foreign citizens and legalization of especially large amounts of illegal income is in progress under Article 157, Part 1, Article 180 of the Criminal Code of Georgia Article 194, Part 4, Subparagraph A, as well as Article 194, Part 2, Subparagraph C and Part 3, Subparagraph C”, reads the statement released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.