Page 7 - GEORptSep19

2.2 Founders of Georgia’s TBC Bank claim “political persecution”
TBC Bank co-founder Khazaradze goes ahead with Georgia political project
Co-founder and former board chairman of Georgia’s TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze and fellow co-founder and former deputy chairman Badri Japaridze spoke of “new repressive measures” pursued against them at a press conference on August 27.
Khazaradze also gave assurances that the that Anaklia deep sea port project is moving ahead and would be completed, despite obstacles he said officials had created. In a recent development, Georgian authorities have attempted to “block” the “legal finances” held by the TBC Bank co-founders in the UK, Japaridze claimed at the briefing.
According to Japaridze, the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia (FMS) informed the “relevant body” in the UK that Khazaradze and Japaridze have been charged for alleged money laundering in Georgia in 2008, and that their finances in the UK might be of “criminal origin”.
Japaridze said that the pair were ready to cooperate with UK officials to prove to them “the legality” of each pound of their finances, while at the same time inviting bodies of other countries to address similar moves from the Georgian authorities with caution.
“We also want to inform the [relevant] services of friendly countries that in our country, Georgia, the state services are being used as tools for political persecution today,” Japaridze stated. Therefore, he said, requests those countries receive from Georgian authorities “should always be double-checked”.
Khazaradze challenged the chairman of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom he accused was at the origins of the prosecution, to hold TV debates and openly discuss the case of the Anaklia deep sea port investment project.
Meanwhile, Mamuka Khazaradze has confirmed that despite the harassment he claims to be subject to from authorities—moves of which have lately included the seizing of his bank accounts in relation to a prosecution for alleged money laundering crimes that date back to 2008—he is going ahead with the founding of a new political vehicle. He said he would present the new movement to the public in September.
It would be a “completely new force” not based on former politicians but rather young professionals, Khazaradze stated, avoiding the use of the word “party” too often.
Ahead of the scheduled general election in 2020, Khazaradze’s entity is expected to capitalise on voters’ disappointment with the policies of the incumbent Georgian Dream party led by ex-PM and oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and the aggressive rhetoric of the United National Movement (UNM) of former president and self-exiled Mikheil Saakashvili. The validity of the money laundering investigation might or might not prove legally grounded, but the probe is certainly not an obstacle for Khazaradze and his political plans. It is rather the opposite given the decreasing credibility of the authorities with
7 GEORGIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com