The FINANCIAL — National Bank of Georgia’s (NBG) temporary administration which was appointed on November 24, 2007, for 60 days has had the term extended to February 24.
“The temporary administration will stay at Standard Bank one more month till February 24, 2008,” Giorgi Kalandadze, NBG’s PR Manager, told The FINANCIAL.
On November 24, 2007, NBG Supervisory Commission made the decision to appoint temporary administration at Standard Bank.
“Standard Bank is continuing to serve its clients and no complications have risen in this respect so far. Though, the existing problems have not been fully solved and the bank needs additional capital injection,” noted Kalandadze.
According to the statement disseminated by NBG, the reason for the appointment of temporary administration at Standard Bank was connected to the official liquidation of the bank. The bank was conditioned to face the problem as a result of intensified deposits loss since the beginning of the current month. Under the instructions of NBG, Giorgi Kadagidze, Head of the Financial Monitoring Service, was appointed head of the temporary administration.
Though Salford Georgia considered that the actions carried out by NBG were illegal, violating both national and international legal norms. The company stated that the developments had a political background as the acting President of NBG stated in meetings that the bank was targeted because Mr Patarkatsishvili was believed to be a shareholder (which he is not, the Salford director being the sole shareholder of the bank’s parent company, although Mr Patarkatsishvili does hold an indirect interest).
“Standard Bank appeared to be strong enough to resist the problems and even since 25% of the bank’s deposits were turned into cash, Standard Bank had no liquidity problems at the time NBG officials entered the bank,” stated Irakli Rukhadze, Chief executive of Salford Georgia.
Salford Georgia reported that since November 7, illegal attacks have been continuing on Salford Georgia owned companies which started with the Mtatsminda Park and Imedi TV raids followed by Borjomi and Telenet cases. Members of the government embarked on a systematic campaign to target the assets in Georgia of Mr Badri Patarkatsishvili, a businessman who expressed opposition to the current Administration. Part of that campaign focused on Standard Bank.
Salford Georgia is an umbrella management company for the tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili’s interests and assets in Georgia. Patarkatsishvili, sought for arranging a coup, was a candidate for Presidency in the January 5 elections.
Founded in 2001, Salford Capital Partners Inc. (Salford) is a private equity firm investing primarily in developing markets (mainly former Soviet Union and Central & Eastern Europe).
Salford is 100% employee owned and manages USD 450 million in investment capital, via general and limited partnership structures, on behalf of high net worth individuals and family offices.
Meanwhile investigation is being continued. Tbilisi’s Court Judge Giorgi Shavliahsvili’s statement, November 7, 2007, says: “On April 11, 2007, the U.S citizen Irakli Rukhadze, a partner of Standard Bank by the directives of Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili met with Irina Jincharadze, JSC People’s Bank’s stakeholder at the café Sharm, 4 Sulkhan-Saba St, Tbilisi at 3 pm. Rukhadze proposed Jincharadze merging the two organizations…Jincharadze, ready to sell some of her own shares, said she would accept the proposal if Rukhadze helped her in settling the dispute with National Bank of Georgia charging her with a GEL 729 823 monitoring fine…afterwards Rukhadze informed Standard Bank’s General Director Giorgi Kalandarishvili, who was in close touch with Ekaterine Galdava, National Bank of Georgia’s Vice-President, promised to assist Rukhadze and got involved in the influential trade operations…As the investigation assumed Kalandarishvili would have necessary documentation at his office at 43 Chavchavadze Ave. the court approved the requisition.”
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