Georgian businesswoman Laura Ghachava has been accused of laundering 2.16 million GEL (about $0.74/€0.66 million), the Georgian Ministry of Finance says.
The charge comes one week after 53 other heads of Georgian companies were indicted with tax evasion and money laundering. "I can't say anything before getting acquainted with case materials I am not familiar with. I have no idea what is happening”, Ghachava said.
Statement from Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance:
"The Investigation Service initiated criminal prosecution against one person – Laura Ghachava on the fact of falsifying tax documents, creating false value added tax assets and thereby inflicting GEL 2 160 955 damage to the State budget.
Investigation determined, that an accused person – Laura Ghachava, with the coordination of the other persons, by filing false data in the VAT, income tax and social payroll tax declarations and forging fictitious real estate contracts, created multimillion fraudulent VAT assets for her company, which covered its current tax liabilities and those customs duties related to the import of oil-products, for the purpose of obtaining illegal material benefit.
According to the investigation, the amount of counterfeit asset used by Laura Ghachava and the damage to the State is estimated at the level of GEL 2 160 955. Laura Ghachava is summoned to the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance today at 2:00 pm to file charges.
Investigation is underway under the second part of article 210 of criminal code of Georgia, which envisages imprisonment from 4 to 7 years.
We would like to remind, that criminal proceedings have been initiated against 54 persons for the creation and use of counterfeit VAT assets, of which 38 are currently in custody.
Appropriate measures are being taken to identify and prosecute other perpetrators."
