Court finds Lelo leaders guilty, but not sends them to prison

Tbilisi City Court has found TBC Bank founders, Lelo opposition party leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze guilty of a fraud, instead of laundering of 16.7 million USD back in 2008, as well as businessman Avtandil Tsereteli, and sentenced then to seven years in prison. 

However, due to the statute of limitations, they were released from the sentence.The court requalified the charge earlier today. 

Both Khazaradze and Japaridze had stated many times that ‘no laundering’ took place back in 2008 as the country’s Prosecutor’s Office say this, and that they were charged as Ivanishvili wanted to hamper the building of Anaklia deep sea port in western Georgia. 

Khazaradze says that the building of the port aimed to strengthen Georgia’s geopolitical role and was against Russian interests. 

He and Japaridze were officially charged in the case in the summer of 2019 and only after they decided to enter politics.