Currency Exchange Office Owner Sentenced to 11 Years in $700 Mln Money Laundering Case – Civil Georgia
Tbilisi City Court sentenced Kakha Kotorashvili, a 49-year-old currency exchange office owner, to 11 years in prison after finding him guilty in a scheme of laundering an “unprecedented” amount of nearly 700 million U.S. dollars in 2022-2024.
Judge Demetre Jinjolia delivered the verdict on June 11. Kotorashvili exercised his right to remain silent throughout the proceedings.
Defense lawyer Edisher Karchava told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service that his client disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal it. Karchava also confirmed that the defense had been prepared to negotiate a plea agreement but failed to reach terms with the prosecution.
Kotorashvili was arrested in September 2025 in connection with an alleged money laundering scheme involving what prosecutors described as an unprecedented amount of illicit funds worth USD 624 million and EUR 35 million.
According to prosecutors, he operated under the cover of a National Bank-authorized currency exchange office, organizing a criminal network that collected funds of unexplained origin, converted them through commercial banks to alter their source while presenting them as legitimate earnings from a currency-exchange business, and introduced them into the legal economy.
Authorities alleged that members of the group regularly smuggled “especially” large amounts of foreign currency from neighboring countries while concealing the cash in vehicles to evade customs controls, and delivered it to a currency exchange office.
The verdict comes months after the National Bank of Georgia fined currency exchange and lending companies linked to Kotorashvili a total of GEL 210,000 [around USD 79,000] for multiple violations related to rules of internal control, registration, and presenting documentation, according to BM.ge.
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