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In a final step, TBC Bank replaced the two debtors with a company registered in an offshore region, with no prior activity in Georgia and with no collateral. “An agreement had been signed with the company registered offshore according to which this company undertook the obligation to pay the loan in the amount of $17mn instead of Samgori M Ltd and Samgori Trade Ltd and obtained the right to demand money from Khazaradze-Japaridze,” the release further reads.
Prosecutors avoid explaining why the two were mentioned in the “agreement”. The sole logical explanation is that the two companies further lent the money to the two bank officials in line with separate lending contracts, but even so it remains unclear why the offshore companies’ claims on the two were mentioned in the “agreement” between TBC, the initial debtors (Samgori companies) and the unnamed offshore companies (the final creditors). However, such documents (the “agreement”) if shown as evidence by the prosecutors, might be a strong element of the case against TBC Bank’s founders.
At the same time of the signing of the agreement with the offshore companies, TBC Bank exempted immovable properties mortgaged for loan insurance.
It should be noted, prosecutors said, that the trustee of the offshore company was a citizen of Georgia, P. Gh, who was a member of the credit committee during the providing of the loans to Samgori M Ltd and Samgori Trade Ltd and who held a high managerial position at TBC Bank when these companies were replaced by the company registered offshore.
2.2 Three MPs quit Georgian Dream in row over appointing lifetime judges
Three MPs of the ruling Georgian Dream party—including the influential Eka Beselia, a former head of the committee charged with appointing lifetime judges under the new Constitution’s provisions—quit the party last week leaving it with only 112 lawmakers in the 150-seat parliament.
Significantly, this is less than the 3/4 majority required for enforcing constitutional amendments, although the reduction in seats poses no essential risk to the government’s stability.
A day after MP Levan Gogichaishvili announced he was quitting Georgian Dream, Beselia and Beka Natsvlishvili also declared they were leaving the party.
Several other lawmakers of Georgian Dream have been expelled from the party, InterPressNews reported , citing unofficial sources.
Lawmakers who voted in favour of the draft law on the suspension of appointing lifetime judges were reportedly expelled from Georgian Dream. That places serious question marks over the ruling party’s good faith on this topic, critics said.
Beselia resigned last autumn from the parliamentary committee charged with appointing lifetime judges to the High Court, claiming that the procedures
6 GEORGIA Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com