One of the founders of TBC Bank, Mamuka Khazaradze stated that acts of certain bodies of Georgian government are undermining his and TBC Bank's reputation while other government agencies are supporting him and his team in the development of Anaklia Port project. But overal Khazaradze thinks that current situation is damaging Anaklia project.
This is how Khazaradze responded to the question about whether or not ongoing investigation damages the process of implementing Anaklia project:
“I can’t and won’t make any conclusions. We have the following situation – you know that for last 5 years there have been negotiations with financial institutions and several weeks ago they all finished examining every aspect of this project. We signed the deal with them exactly a year ago and now we’re waiting for financial approval in May-June and this is quite a hard process.
This hasty investigation, which started by the Prosecutor’s Office in Georgia, as well as leakage of information as if Badri and I are involved in criminal activity and the spreading of it in international press, is directly damaging to the procedures of forming this [Anaklia project] agreement. Can you imagine financial institution signing the deal with one of the main investors and company against which so-called non-existing case is being brought up. I won’t make any further comments on this.
At the same time, want to tell you that the government is beside us. We don’t have any setbacks in regard to this project, however, I am alarmed by the fact that one of the governmental institutions is making the statements when the investigation isn’t over and the court hearing hasn’t been announced yet”, stated Khazaradze.
