Within the framework of joint measures carried out by the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service of Georgia together with the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, based on a court ruling, on the fact of fraudulent misappropriation of 403,095 GEL belonging to the state, the director of LLC Guria Energy, M.Zh., and an employee of the supervisory company, P.R., have been detained. Also, another employee of the supervisory company T.M. is being charged.

As the Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service, Emzar Gagnidze noted at the briefing held at the agency today, the case concerns large-scale fraud, assistance in large-scale fraud, and the preparation and use of a false official document.

"In particular, the fact of fraudulent appropriation of a large amount of money belonging to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia.

The investigation has established that from September 2022 to January 2023, in the process of carrying out rehabilitation works on the 3.52 km long local road connecting Norio-Lilo in Gardabani Municipality, the owner and director of 100% of the shares of LLC Guria Energy, M.Zh., with the assistance of a person responsible for the control and inspection of the tender implementation, P.R., through the preparation and use of forged official documents, fraudulently appropriated 403,095 GEL belonging to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, thereby causing a large amount of property damage to the state. According to the expert opinion, the road delivered as a result of rehabilitation works by Guria Energy LLC is unfit for operation.

An investigation is underway into the above-mentioned criminal act under Article 180, Part 3, Subparagraph “b”, Articles 25, 180, Part 3, Subparagraph “b”, and Article 362, Part 2, Subparagraph “b”, of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides for imprisonment for a term of 6 to 9 years as the form and measure of punishment.

Before the briefing, we provided media outlets with photographic material that reflects the consequences of committing such crimes, which the state cannot forgive anyone.

Accordingly, intensive investigations into the aforementioned and other similar cases are ongoing in order to identify other persons involved in the crimes and prevent corruption.

The fight against corruption by the State Security Service and the detection of criminal acts in this direction will have an irreversible nature in the future, regarding which we will permanently inform the public,” Gagnidze said.