The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) has detained an individual who fraudulently obtained 11,300 GEL (approximately $4,305) by using the names of SSSG Head Gela Geladze and Tsotne Ivanishvili.
The detainee is a former employee of a “security agency” who approached the families of two imprisoned defendants, presenting himself as acting on behalf of the Head of the State Security Service, Gela Geladze, and Tsotne Ivanishvili, the son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, Honorary Chairman of “Georgian Dream.” The suspect promised the relatives the release of the defendants and a subsequent plea bargain, receiving the aforementioned sum in exchange.
The SSSG did not specify which criminal case the defendants are involved in, nor which security agency the detainee was dismissed from, who reported the fraud to law enforcement, or when the incident itself occurred.
The investigation is being conducted under Article 180, Part 3, Subparagraph “b” of the Criminal Code of Georgia (large-scale fraud), which carries a sentence of 6 to 9 years’ imprisonment.
