Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia is actively continuing to study legality of spending of funds allocated as a grant by the NNLE Rural Development Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

At this stage of investigation, another case of fraudulent misappropriation of a large amount of money, as a group, allocated as a grant has been exposed and 4 individuals were brought to the criminal liability.

As a result of operative-searching and investigative activities carried out in coordination with Prosecutor`s Office of Georgia, employees of Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance have detained heads of Elitmsheni LLC and cooperative RK Georgian Vegetables on the fact of fraudulent misappropriation of a large amount of funds as a group, allocated as a grant by Rural Development Agency. One member of the criminal group was charged in absence and criminal prosecution was also initiated against one person.

Facts of fraudulent misappropriation of GEL 430 200 belonging to the state budget, creation of a fictitious VAT asset of GEL 167 918 and fraudulent misappropriation of GEL 2 000 from the state budget have been confirmed.

Investigation determined that cooperative and hired company entered into a deal with each other, namely: (a) In order to fraudulently misappropriate GEL 430 200 of budget allocated for co-financing from NNLE Rural and Agricultural Development Agency, Elitmsheni LLC issued forged electronic tax invoice to cooperative RK Georgian Vegetables for performance of works worth GEL 1 100 800 and corresponding forged consignment note for supply of various goods necessary for the arrangement of the greenhouse, although work was not performed.

In turn, by issuing forged tax invoice, cooperative received fictitious VAT deduction in the amount of GEL 167 918, from which director and chairman of the board fraudulently recovered GEL 2 000 of VAT from the state budget and additionally attempted to recover GEL 100 000 of fictitious excess VAT asset from the state budget, which they failed to do with the timely involvement of the Investigation Service.

Investigation is underway under parts 2 and 3 of Article 180, parts 2 and 3 of Articles 19-180, part 2 of Article 210 and Part 2 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which as a type of sentence, envisages imprisonment from six to nine years.