Based on the cassation appeal lodged by the Prosecution Service of Georgia on June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of Georgia quashed the judgments of acquittal rendered by Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals and found D.K., the former Minister of Defense of Georgia, guilty of embezzling public funds in large amounts by using his official position.

“It has been established that on January 10, 2008, the ex-Minister of Defense of Georgia D.K. issued an order to enter an agreement with the company of his associate and friend O. Sh. registered in the offshore, without any grounds and due diligence, in order to embezzle funds in favor of the said company. He gave an oral directive to his associate A.N, then-Head of the State Procurement Department of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, to conclude an agreement with a representative of the company immediately, on the same day, without conducting any due diligence. The said instruction was carried out by grossly violating the Statute of the State Procurement Department. Namely, without looking into the legal entity, without studying the market price of the offered services, without agreeing with relevant departments of the Ministry of Defense and the High Command, and without requesting a bank guarantee or any other guarantee, as well as despite the lack of permission to access a state secret as provided by the Law of Georgia on State Secrets, he concluded the agreement on a routine combat training of relevant sub-units of the Ministry of Defense with the company on the same day – January 10, 2008. Under the agreement, the price of the services was determined as EUR 5,685,000, from which EUR 5,060,000 was transferred to the account of the company, as instructed by D.K., while the company failed to render the services – military exercise, as it was obliged to do under the contract.

The Supreme Court of Georgia found D.K. guilty of the charges filed under §2 (d) and §3 (b) of Article 182 of the Criminal Code of Georgia and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. As an additional punishment, he was also deprived of the right to hold an appointive public office for a term of 3 years. Pursuant to the Amnesty Act of Georgia of December 29, 2012, his sentence was cut in half and D.K. was finally sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 5 years and was deprived of the right to right to hold an appointive public office for a term of 1 year and 6 months.

As for convict A.N., the former Head State Procurement Department of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, who had been found guilty of the offense punishable under Article 342 §1 of the Criminal Code of Georgia by the decision by both Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals, the judgment of conviction was upheld without any changes.

Furthermore, we would like to inform the public that the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia continues investigation with the aim to trace the embezzled monies of the Ministry of Defense, to identify the final owners of the misappropriated funds and to expose those involved in the criminal scheme”, reads the statement of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia.