Tbilisi: Investigation service staff of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia detained the former head of the administration of the municipality of Mtskheta Vakhtang Kipshidze and former head of the Oil and Gas Corporation of Georgia Zurab Janjgava on charges of large-scale misappropriation of funds. The Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
As it’s said in the statement of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia’ Investigative Service, the investigation revealed that with the help of the head of administration of the municipality of Mtskheta Vakhtang Kipshidze, the members of an organized crime group, namely former governor of Mtseta Mtianeti Caesar Chocheli, Loom Kapanadze, Merab Kupuniya and founder of the company “New Energy” Nikoloz Shakarashvili overestimating the construction budget of the housing for victims of the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008 appropriated 7,140,000 lari from the allocated budget of 76.14 million lari ($ 1 = 1.64 lari).
The investigation also revealed that there was signed an agreement between the Oil and Gas Corporation of Georgia and the company “New Energy” for the building of a 30-kilometer stretch of the main gas pipeline Aspindza-Akhalkalaki. Despite the fact that the cost of the project amounted to 10 million lari, by artificially increasing the works, the corporation transferred 17.7 million lari to “New Energy”, resulting in 6,038,847 lari that have been thieved.
The investigation is being conducted under the Article 182-nd, part 3 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which stipulates 7 to 11 years in prison.
