Employees of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service of Georgia, as a result of investigative and operational measures carried out on two different criminal cases, detained five citizens of Georgia and one citizen of the Republic of Turkey on the basis of judges’ rulings on the fact of large-scale fraud and attempted fraud. Director of the SSG Anti-Corruption Agency Emzar Gagnidze stated this at a briefing held at the State Security Service.

“The investigation ongoing on one of the criminal cases established that one citizen of the Republic of Turkey, who together with four citizens of Georgia formed a fraudulent criminal group, promised a citizen of the Republic of Turkey temporarily staying in Georgia assistance in obtaining a residence permit in exchange for 14,500 US dollars, but failed to fulfil the promise.

The victim’s period of lawful stay in the country had expired, which was known to the other members of the criminal group. Accordingly, later, citizens of Georgia who were in criminal connection with the detained accused contacted the same citizen of the Republic of Turkey and, in exchange for 3,000 US dollars, assisted him in creating a lawful basis for his stay in Georgia - namely, using the said person’s identity card, without an actual crossing of the border, they placed official stamps confirming a bilateral crossing of the state border of Georgia in the ‘form of travel, entry and exit by identity card.’

As for the second criminal case - the investigation established that a citizen of the Republic of Turkmenistan temporarily staying in Georgia was running out of the period of lawful stay in the country; a citizen of Georgia, in exchange for 4,000 US dollars, promised him to take him out across the border and then bring him back in such a way that the period of stay in Georgia would be lawfully extended. The accused failed to fulfil the promise, but nevertheless demanded and received part of the money.

The investigation is ongoing under sub-paragraph ‘b’ of part 3 of Article 180, sub-paragraph ‘a’ of part 2 and sub-paragraph ‘b’ of part 3 of Article 19.180 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provide for deprivation of liberty for a term of up to 9 years as a form of punishment.

The Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service continues work with the aim of identifying other persons involved in the said criminal scheme and bringing them to criminal liability,” - stated Emzar Gagnidze.