David Vashadze, the brother of Giorgi Vashadze, the chair of the Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition party, on Friday rejected claims by several domestic media outlets on his alleged connections with the fraudulent call-centre schemes, defrauding European pensioners over the years.
The allegations were voiced following the police search of a central Tbilisi building, with the finance ministry saying the raid had been related to a notification over the presence of a fraudulent call-centre there.
Vashadze said he owned shares in a hotel located in the same building, but had no connections with any call-centres.
Along with Vashadze, the pro-government media claimed the Ukrainian MP critical to the Georgian authorities, David Arakhamia, was also connected with the specific call centre.
Part of domestic opposition groups and the country’s authorities are accusing each other of backing the schemes.
Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Georgian interior minister, and the members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said if the government supported the schemes, they would not have been engaged in exposing and closing them.
The BBC report published last month named David Kezerashvili, the currently wanted former defence minister of Georgia, as a “central figure” of the scheme, which is offering investment opportunities to European citizens before defrauding them.
Kezerashvili, who has been convicted in Georgia in absentia on embezzlement charges, has rejected the allegations and announced a defamation lawsuit against Britain’s largest media corporation.
