Former Georgian Deputy Infrastructure Minister arrested on charges of fraud, abuse of power

Koba Gabunia, the former Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure, on Thursday was arrested on charges of fraud and abuse of power.

Employees of the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with the State Security Service, arrested the former Deputy Minister as a result of investigative activities.

Investigative actions were also carried out at the residence of Irakli Karseladze, the former Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure.

The detainee was accused of fraudulently misappropriating funds allocated for the rehabilitation of 30 kindergartens.

As part of the comprehensive operation, searches were conducted at a total of 20 different locations.

As is already known to the public, David Tabidze, the former Executive Director of the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia, the fund’s programme manager, and the project manager of the same agency were previously detained. They fully cooperated with the investigation and were granted bail by the court as a preventive measure.

The heads of LLC Lagi Capital were arrested for fraudulently misappropriating ₾ 9,365,801 ($3,437,928.92) and laundering ₾ 1,211,000 ($3,299,975.00) of illicit income allocated for the rehabilitation of 30 kindergartens through the Municipal Development Fund.

According to the investigation materials, between July 2023 and May 2024, the advance payment requests submitted by LLC Lagi Capital to the Fund were unsubstantiated and only partially supported.