European Commission said it’s allocating 233 million EUR to finance the second phase of the deepwater port of Anaklia, project owned by a consortium of TBC Holding.
In addition, European Commission the project additionally takes into account 100 million euros for the construction and repair of rail lines and roads to the port of Anaklia.
TBC Holding (Georgia), is one of the companies within the larger TBC Group. Affiliated companies successfully operate in various business sectors including financial services, real estate, FMCG, education and agriculture. TBC Holding is a group affiliate of Georgia’s largest banks and which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. TBC Holding acts as a project developer and a principle partner of Anaklia Development Consortium.
Georgian authorities announced on 9 January that they had launched a probe against TBC Bank related to possible money laundering.
Meanwhile, TBC on January 9 released a statement through the London Stock Exchange saying it had been fined Georgian lari (GEL) 1mn (GBP295,000) by Georgia’s central bank, the National Bank of Georgia, over historic “certain transactions” in 2007 and 2008.
It said the regulator claimed that these transactions, which the regulator believed were related to the chairman and deputy chairman of TBC, did not comply with relevant Georgian law concerning conflicts of interest.
On 9 January, TBC Bank Group slammed ‘media portals‘, without specifying which ones, for conducting a ‘black PR campaign’ against the bank.
see also: Statement of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia
2019-01-09 14:20:23
Financial Monitoring Service started studying financial activities of TBC Bank, its customer legal persons, bank administrators and certain shareholders in May 2018, and arrived at the conclusion that in this activities clearly showed the characteristics of legalization of illegal income, i.e. money laundering, and other illicit acts.
The said materials were forwarded to National Bank of Georgia and the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia for further response.
National Bank studied the matter within its competence and responded to uncovered violations in an appropriate manner.
As for the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, it launched investigation into a criminal case of legalization of illegal income on August 2, 2018, the offense punishable under Article 194§3(c) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
Investigation has revealed that Samgori Trade LLC and Samgori M LLC received 17 million USD In total as a loan from TBC Bank in April and May 2008, without any security and through accelerated procedure. As soon as the loaned funds were credited in the accounts of the companies, Mamuka Khazaradze and Bardi Japaridze borrowed the same amount which TBC Bank had lent to the aforementioned companies for the purpose of financing working capital. By the end of the year of 2008, TBC wrote off the said loans without any grounds and earlier than stipulated by banking regulations and moved them to external balance account while in 2012, even exempted these companies from the liabilities they owed the bank, when agreed to transfer theses liabilities to an offshore company. Interestingly, loans of Samgori Trade LLC and Samgori M LLC were written off in such manner that these companies have not paid any commissions and these loans have not been repaid to the bank. Furthermore, Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze have yet to repay the loan to Samgori Trade LLC and Samgori M LLC.
A number of investigative and procedural activities have been carried out in course of investigation, individuals involved in the matter, including Mamuka Khazaradze, have been interviewed. At this stage of investigation, it could be necessary to obtain and study additional documentation and information in order to thoroughly investigate the alleged criminal acts, to which end the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia has petitioned Tbilisi City Court to request information from JSC TBC Bank. The petitions granted by the Court were served upon the JSC TBC Bank for their execution. Considering the interest of the public interest in the case, the Office of the Prosecutor General will keep the society posted on the progress of the investigation.
Partners of Anaklia Development Consortium are:
(Source: Anaklia Development Consortium)
Conti International (USA), which was founded in 1906 and is the designer of capital asset projects, with an exceptional construction management track record, oversees the development for the concession and acts as Program Manager (All construction related works will be performed by local and international constructors). Conti International acts as a project developer and a principle partner of Anaklia Development Consortium.
SSA Marine is one of the largest terminal operators in the world and has its headquarters in Seattle, WA, U.S.A. The company oversees more than 250 strategic operations across five continents, servicing 27.2 million containers (TEU) and managing terminals in nine different countries. In addition, SSA Marine handles over 75 million tons of dry bulk globally, manages cruise ship operations in Mexico and the United States and operates over 30 intermodal rail ramps for U.S. Class I railroads.
Wondernet Express, an interregional company with offices in Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, carries out its main activities in transportation and complex forwarding services of export-import and transit cargo by rail and other modes of transportation on the territory of CIS countries and the Baltic states, in particular, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Estonia.
G-Star Ltd., is a company situated in Bulgaria with various businesses globally through its subsidiaries, including but not limited to Forex operations and investments in real estate projects.
