Page 10 - GEOGRptJun19

Two other Russians, Vladimir Eremenko and Farkhad Manokhin, allegedly took care of the "cash-out" step of the process, managing the accounts that received and laundered the stolen funds. The money was then withdrawn from banks and ATMs by so-called "money mules"—low-level operatives in the scheme who weren't charged in the indictment. Manokhin was arrested in Sri Lanka in 2017 at the request of US law enforcement, but was released on bail and fled to Russia, where he's still at large, along with the other four Russian members of the Goznym crew.
GozNym first time appeared in 2016 and took the best of a Trojan downloader and a banking Trojan.
2.6 Georgia “faces democratic backsliding, making it vulnerable to high-level corruption”: TI
Georgia “faces democratic backsliding, making it both vulnerable to high-level corruption and a country to watch moving forward,” Transparency International (TI) said on January 29 after releasing the 2018 edition of its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Although the small nation fared better than any other country in the Eastern Europe & Central Asia region—it placed 41st of 180 assessed countries with 58 points compared to 46th in the 2017 survey with 56 points (the points scale runs from 0 which represents “highly corrupt” to 100 which represents “very clean”)—it has come in for some firm criticism from TI.
In a press release on the CPI results, TI said: “Despite an urgent need to investigate cases of corruption and misconduct in the government, Georgia has failed to establish independent agencies to take on this mandate.
“Impunity contributes to public distrust. According to a recent poll conducted by our chapter, Transparency International Georgia , 36 percent of citizens believe that public officials abuse their power for personal gain. This is up from only 12 per cent in 2013. Progress in anti-corruption will continue to stall and reverse if the Georgian government does not take immediate steps to ensure the independence of institutions, including the judiciary, and support civil society, which enhances political engagement and public oversight.”
2.7 Georgia retains “Partly Free” ranking: Freedom in the World 2019 survey
Georgia has again been c ategorised as “Partly Free” by the annual Freedom in the World survey. However, the 2019 edition of the ranking shaves a point off the country’s Aggregate Freedom Score. It now stands at 63/100 (100 = Most Free).
The latest survey, issued by US-based watchdog Freedom House late on February 4, makes no changes to Georgia’s scores in the sub-categories of Freedom Rating, Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Georgia again scored 3/7 for each (7 = Least Free).
Freedom House was yet to release the report detailing the reasoning behind
10 GEORGIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com