Prosecutor's Office of Georgia solves mass thefts at ecology ministry

Today, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has announced disclosure of a "big corruption scheme" in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and detention of a number of ministerial officials.

According to the Office, the following persons have already been detained: Gocha Pirveli, former first deputy head of the Environment Inspectorate; Gocha Zeikrishvili, Head of the Forestry Department; ministerial officials Elgudzha Kutidze, Vladimir Mindiashvili, David Urtvelidze; and one of the alleged organizers of the crime Lasha Kudiashvili.

David Sakvarelidze, Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor of Georgia, has noted that as a result of a joint operation of the Department for Constitutional Security and the Prosecutor's Office "a huge corruption scheme" was revealed at the above Ministry, the IA "News-Georgia" reports with reference to the report of the Georgian "Rustavi-2" TV Company.

According to investigators, a group of officials of the Ministry have awarded their relatives, by abusing their service positions, with ownership rights on quarries, where inert materials were extracted, which brought them up to 7-million-worth illegal income over the past several years.