The persons detained in connection with the Georgian Railway case, including former head Davit Peradze, have been charged.

The Prosecutor's Office charged eight individuals with fraudulently appropriating a large amount of money by using their official position, legalizing illegal income, and organizing, producing and using false tax and official documents by an organized group.

According to the agency, as a result of the investigation being conducted by the State Security Service, it was established that in the fall of 2019, the then General Director of JSC “Georgian Railways” David Peradze formed an organized criminal group, which, in accordance with a pre-developed scheme, was to ensure the collection, transportation and sorting of scrap metal belonging to JSC “Georgian Railways” for subsequent sale in such a way that its initial exact amount could not be determined. In accordance with the criminal agreement, part of the collected scrap metal was systematically transported from various territories of “Georgian Railways” by trucks instead of being stored and delivered to the “Geosteel” LLC enterprise. The organized criminal group prepared false tax documents.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, using a criminal scheme, in 2020-2021, members of the criminal group acquired 22,120 tons of scrap metal belonging to the Georgian Railways, which, after changing its origin, was sold to Geosteel LLC, and the proceeds from the sale were accumulated in the bank accounts of the business entities involved in the scheme, and were periodically withdrawn and distributed among the group members.

Accordingly, the Georgian Railways suffered a large amount of material damage of 17,391,121 GEL."

Also, in 2022, David Peradze formed an organized group and on April 29, 2022, an agreement was signed between the Georgian Railways and Raveld LLC, according to which, the service of repairing defects on the rails in the track was purchased from the supplier. During the works, at the instruction and organization of David Peradze, the then director of the infrastructure branch of the Georgian Railway and the director of the supplier entered false data in the acceptance and delivery acts, on the basis of which Raveldi LLC received 403,844.69 GEL in excess from the Georgian Railway. As a result, the Georgian Railway suffered a large amount of material damage.

The detainees and two others were charged in absentia with abusing their official position, committing large-scale fraud by an organized group, legalizing illegal income, organizing, producing and using false tax and official documents, which provides for up to 12 years of imprisonment as a form and measure of punishment.

The Prosecutor's Office will apply to the court within the time limit established by law with a motion to use pre-trial detention.

A wanted list will be declared for the two individuals who were charged in absentia.