Page 52 - BNE_magazine_04_2019

52 I Eurasia bne April 2019
Largest Georgian lender TBC – included in the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 Index since June 2017 – responded to the announcement of the investiga- tion into some of its historical lending by saying that it was the target of “dark PR” and a “deliberate attempt to discredit and tarnish its reputation”.
“Rumours... are nonsense”
“The rumors about money laundering are nonsense. The operation [in ques- tion] was absolutely open and transpar- ent,” Zviad Kordzadze, Khazaradze’s lawyer, argued in comments reported by Georgia Today on January 9.
Gigi Ugulava, one of the leaders of the parliamentary minority party European Georgia, was quoted by Georgia Today as saying: “[Co-founders of TBC Bank Group and its chairman] Khazaradze were trying to get on well with Ivanish- vili before but it did not work out... We see business cannot breathe freely.”
However, Georgian Dream MP and vice speaker of parliament Gia Volsky told
runoff in last November’s presidential elections, warning him of reputational damage should he fail to meet proposed conditions.
The letter published by the Prosecutor’s Office includes a list of requirements, including public statements Khazaradze was told to make and influence he should exert regarding two TV stations – one controlled directly (Artarea), the other held by one of his business part- ners (TV Pirveli).
“In this case [if the conditions are met], we are ready to hold a healthy dialogue without any preconditions. Otherwise, we will use all legal and objective instru- ments at our disposal and will do so publicly, for internal and external audi- ences,” the letter reads.
Zviad Kordzadze, Khazaradze’s defence lawyer, said the letter was handed over to Khazaradze through an intermediary on November 1, a few days after the election first round, in which the Georgian Dream-endorsed candidate,
“Ahead of the second round of [the presidential] elections, I received a letter from one high-ranking official which contained threats, direct threats, that they would destroy our reputation both here and in the international arena.
I was very surprised that this was a written down, rather than told to us orally. There were also demands, which we did not fulfil, of course...you know what happened next,” Khazaradze said.
In a response quoted by InterPress- News, Gakharia denied all the claims made against him by Khazaradze.
“It was the attempt of the privileged businessman to grab the immunity from the parliamentary tribune with gos-
sip. Everything else is a lie. Full stop," Gakharia reportedly said.
Forced to step down
Khazaradze and his deputy Badri Japaridze were lately forced to step down from the supervisory board of TBC after the central bank, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), and prosecutors referred to the accusations of “actions contradicting conflict of interest legislation” in transactions dating back to 2008. Khazaradze retains his position as the board chair of TBC Bank Group PLC, the parent company of TBC, registered in the UK.
If Khazaradze chooses to make public any differences he has with Ivanishvili, he might draw on some ammunition provided by Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2019 report on Georgia. It concluded that Ivanishvili is impairing the ability of Georgia’s elected officials to determine and implement govern- ment policy.
Noting Ivanishvili’s “informal role”, the US-based watchdog said that although the businessman holds no public office he “exerts significant influence over executive and legislative decision-making”. Working out how far that influence goes is presently more important than it's ever been
for business people in Georgia, with Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream more powerful than ever following the 2018 presidential election.
“The greatest threat to countries like Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine lies in their own poor governance and abuse of informal power”
the publication that he rejected the idea that political motives featured in the TBC case. “It is impossible to blame such a huge financial institution so ground- lessly,” he said.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia
has published a letter submitted to investigators by Khazaradze. The letter allegedly frames threats made to the banker, but the Office said it was only a copy of the original document, making it impossible to verify for authenticity, civil.ge reported.
Claims of threats from interior minister Khazaradze reportedly said that he sent the original to London for authen- tication. He has previously told how
he claims to have received written threats from Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia ahead of the second round
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Salome Zurabishvili, finished neck- and-neck with the UNM-led coalition’s Grigol Vashadze.
The cited intermediary, according to the attorney, was not an employee of the Interior Ministry but this person “went for a meeting [with the Interior Minis- ter] and returned with the letter”.
Khazaradze on March 5 further accused Gakharia of sending him written threats, civil.ge reported. He made his claim while addressing the Georgian parliament’s finance and budget committee on March 4.
At a presentation and question-and- answer session lasting for almost four hours, Khazaradze spoke of an “orches- trated attack”, “blackmail” and “threats” from politicians and public officials, directly accusing Gakharia.