Supervisor of Tbilisi City Hall–owned company Hermes detained over commercial bribery case

The Anti-Corruption Agency of Georgia’s State Security Service has detained a supervisor of Hermes, a company founded by Tbilisi City Hall, on charges of commercial bribery, the body said on Saturday.

The Agency added the case involved the illegal transfer of a burial plot at the Mukhatgverdi cemetery near the capital city of Tbilisi in exchange for payment. Investigators said the detainee promised a Georgian citizen a three-place burial plot at the cemetery despite the fact that such plots cannot be transferred without an official death certificate.

Authorities said the supervisor offered to prepare a burial certificate falsely listing the citizen’s deceased grandfather as already interred at the site, including fabricating the gravestone inscription. In return, the individual demanded ₾4,600 ($1,704).

The citizen handed over ₾2,100 ($777.95) in the beginning of this month, as part of the requested payment. On Friday, the supervisor allegedly delivered the falsified burial certificate and received the remaining ₾2,500 ($926.13), after which detention followed.

The crime is punishable by four to six years in prison.