In Georgia, a currency exchange proprietor has been apprehended for orchestrating the largest money-laundering operation amounting to 660 million dollars
18.09.2025 22:10
Georgian prosecutors accuse a currency exchange owner of running the country’s biggest laundering scheme, allegedly moving $660 million from Azerbaijan into legal circulation through banks and property deals.
The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday announced the arrest of a local currency exchange owner accused of laundering more than $660 million, calling it the country’s largest money-laundering scheme to date.
A court ordered Kakha Kotorashvili, 49, head of the currency firm Fin, held in pre-trial detention on money-laundering charges. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation—conducted together with the State Security Service—found that between 2022 and 2024, Kotorashvili organized an “illegal network for collecting money of unsubstantiated origin, disguising its source through conversion, and placing it into legal circulation.”
While the Prosecutor’s Office did not disclose the funds’ origin in its statement, reporting by RFE/RL’s Georgian Service from the trial said the prosecutor claimed the money came from Azerbaijan. A total of $624 million and €35 million ($41.26 million) was allegedly laundered by converting “59 billion Russian rubles” illegally transferred from there.
The prosecutors said members of the criminal group systematically smuggled large amounts of undocumented foreign currency from neighboring countries, bypassing customs by using hidden compartments in vehicles. The cash was delivered to a currency exchange point that served as a collection hub.
“To make the funds appear legal, the accused deposited large amounts of undocumented foreign currency into banks, presenting it as legitimate income from currency exchange and providing false documents to back it,” prosecutors said. They added that the laundered money was then funneled into the economy through transfers, property purchases, and other transactions.
In an interview to OCCRP, Kotorashvili’s lawyer, Edisher Karchava said his client “chooses to remain silent, which means he does not admit guilt.”
He said that the investigation had been ongoing for a year and that his client had cooperated with the authorities.
“Cooperation means that when you are called, you appear and respond to questions. For that reason, there was no necessity for him to be held in prison,” Karchava said. He added that the defense is still reviewing the case materials and will demand “substantiated answers from the prosecution” about how banks and state structures allowed the transactions.
Karchava also suggested systematic flaws, rather than individual wrongdoing, may have enabled the alleged laundering. “If money comes into an exchange booth, the owner cannot investigate its origin. That is a question for the authorities, not the exchange,” he told OCCRP.
