TBC Bank Speaks of “Orchestrated Black PR” Against Them
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, January 10
Georgia’s largest private financial institution, TBC Bank, speaks about the “orchestrated black PR” against the company in a statement released after the Georgian General Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into one of the bank operations.
TBC statement regarding the issue reads that they will not put up with “the targeted moves discrediting and damaging the reputation of the bank” and will use all the leverage to “protect the legitimate interests of founders and international shareholders.”
According to TBC Bank, documents obtained by the Prosecutor's Office are related to the 2008 banking operation, which, as they say, has been repeatedly checked by Audit Office and the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) during the current and the previous governments.
The statement reads that on January 8 several media portals released “erroneous and deliberately distorted information that serves to damage the country's leading financial institution and its founders' reputation.”
“We categorically deny the accusations and deliberately distorted facts released by the orchestrated black PR authors,” the bank said.
TBC says they will remain as the leading bank, reminding that TBC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
“It is unfortunate that during the 27-year existence of TBC Bank, and during all governments, the bank has been attacked. TBC Bank and its management have seen a number of crises and have always proven their truth,” the statement reads.
TBC Bank also confirmed that the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) penalized it with 1 million GEL. According to the bank, a complaint is filed in the court in objection to the imposition of the fine and the court has already made a decision about the suspension of its payment.
After the statement of the TBC Bank was released, the POG held a briefing, saying the investigation is related to the “fact of illegal legalization of income.”
According to the Prosecutor's Office, in April-May 2008, companies Samgori M and Samgori Trade took the $17 million loan from TBC with the purpose of filling the working capital which was issued on the same day to Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze, Co-Founder of TBC Bank Group and its Chairman since May 2016.
As the Prosecutor's Office explains neither the Samgori M nor Samgori Trade paid back the loan borrowed from the bank and later these companies had been replaced by the company registered in the offshore. POG says the loan issued by TBC has not been paid back.
The POG says the case contains “signs of money laundering.”
“The case materials were sent to the National Bank as well as sent to the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia. On August 2, 2018, the Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office launched an investigation into the fact of illegal legalization of income under the Article 194 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of Georgia,” the POG stated.
The National Bank of Georgia released a statement regarding the case. The NBG says that TBC Bank is a healthy crediting organization and has an adequate level of liquidation resources and capital.
“Investigation process into the case of TBC Bank will not affect sustainable and efficient functioning of the banking sector,” reads the statement.
Economic expert Demur Giorkhelidze says that TBC is a large organization and “artificially creating some cases” will not work.
"The prosecutor's office cannot create any problem artificially. Any artificial case in relation to such a bank will be followed by a big international resonance. I do not think that the government wants it anyway. As for the actions of the Prosecutor's Office, we should wait for the investigation results,” he said, adding if there are any violations, this will be followed by proper measures.
Opposition United National Movement linked the current TBC case with the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) Chair and founder, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili.
UNM member Roman Gotsiridze says it is the attempt to override “big business in the country.”
“This will be the start of the collapse of the political dictatorship and financial system and we should not let this happen,” he added.
TBC is the largest bank in Georgia. In 2014, London Stock Exchange welcomed TBC Bank to the Main Market following its listing of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs). The Bank raised $239m at IPO, giving it a market value of $640m. TBC Bank IPO was also the largest IPO from Georgia and the largest international off-index IPO from the EMEA region.
