Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance is actively continuing to study legality of the legitimate spending of funds allocated as a grant by the NNLE Rural Development Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and we would like to provide you with information about the operational-searching and investigative activities conducted at this stage.

On October 24, 2025, Investigative Service, in coordination with the Prosecution Service of Georgia, based on a court ruling, detained 1 additional member of the organized group and initiated criminal prosecution against 7 members on the fact of fraudulent misappropriation of a large amount of the state funds.

More than 1 000 investigative/procedural activities were conducted in the case. As a result of large-scale investigative activities, it was established that the leaders of the organized group obtained information about 219 beneficiaries interested in the state program "Dairy Modernization and Market Access ", who were offered to receive a guaranteed grant under the program, arrange the documentation to be submitted to the agency and provide a co-payment, but in return, they demanded and took the funds transferred from the agency as a grant.

Investigation determined that out of the GEL 12 935 750 allocated as a grant to the beneficiaries by the NNLE Rural Development Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, the cost of the works envisaged by the projects amounted to GEL 8 824 695, while the remaining 4 111 054 GEL was illegally misappropriated by members of the organized group.

The members of the organized group additionally received a total of GEL 1 559 739 as a grant under another program of the NNLE Rural Development Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia - the State Program for Co-financing Agricultural Machinery and Establishment of a Processing and Storage Enterprise, which they illegally misappropriated. In order to carry out their criminal activities, the accused individuals created and used false consignment notes, invoices and audit reports.

In order to legalize the particularly large amount of property obtained through criminal activities, the leaders of the organized group acquired and registered real estate and vehicles in the names of individuals and legal entities related to them, which were fully searched and frozen during the investigation.

At this stage of the investigation, the fact of fraudulent misappropriation of GEL 5 670 793.2 belonging to the state budget and legalization of illegal income GEL 3 008 906.67 by the accused individuals has already been confirmed. 21 persons have been brought to the criminal liability. We would like to remind public that 13 individuals were detained in July and August 2025 on the fact of fraudulent misappropriation of a large amount of funds belonging to the NNLE Rural Development Agency, the preparation and use of false tax and official documents by employees of the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, including the head of the Projects and Technical Department of the Rural Development Agency and a former employee of the agency.

Intensive investigative activities are ongoing in order to identify other members of the organized group, determine other criminal acts committed by them and damage caused to the state.

Investigation is underway under Article 180, Part 3, Subparagraph “b”, Part 4, Subparagraph “a”, Article 210, Part 2, Subparagraphs “a”, Article 362, Part 2, Subparagraph “b” and Subparagraph “c” of Part 3, Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which envisages imprisonment from a 9 to 12 years.