170 people detained in Georgia for suspicion of financial fraud

On October, 5, law enforcement bodies in Georgia detained the leaders of an importer company "Trans-Cargo" and the personnel of shopping centers "Kidobani" and "Passage", their total number comes to about 170 people. The mass detention was reported by Investigation service of the Ministry of finance of the country.

"Importers had brought in clothes, footwear and other goods from Turkey to Georgia through the instrumentality of "Trans-Cargo" company which had had offices in Tbilisi and Istanbul for carrying out a contraband scheme", Press service of Investigation department of the Ministry of finance reported.

According to the information from the Ministry, among those detained there were Gela Chikviladze, Manager of "Trans-Cargo", and its employees Akaky Pipia and Zaal Kvirikadze. They are suspected of an especially large-scaled import of contraband cargo and manufacturing and use of forged customs documents.

Preliminary investigation established that the personnel of "Trans" Limited had been collecting 80 US cents per transfer of each kilogram of cargo, as a result this company's illegal income had come to 20 to 30 thousand laris per each trunk for cargo transfer and manufacturing forged documents only. They had been carrying out 5 to 6 such operations a month. 

According to the investigators' version, the suspects had been filling in the customs declarations with forged data and in this way concealing from the state especially large tax sums, "Georgia Online" reports.