Fraudsters who sold certificates for state assistance were detained in Georgia

The Investigative Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia detained two persons who issued false certificates to citizens for compensation in the amount of 300 lari under the pandemic assistance program. The investigation found that the accused, in order to obtain direct material benefit, for the illegal receipt of compensation from the state budget in the amount of 300 lari, The targeted State programme to mitigate the damage caused by the spread of new coronavirus infection, on behalf of one of the companies made false certificates and sublease contracts for 5 citizens, Allegedly, they traded precious metals and jewellery on shelves rented from the company in Tbilisi, such a long phrase explained in the Ministry of Finance the essence of the case with fake certificates. According to the investigation, the accused sold each such certificate for 100 lari. It turns out that the recipients of compensation, if their request from 300 lari was satisfied, would remain 200 lari. The defendants face imprisonment of up to 3 years. Recall that earlier, presenting the government's anti-crisis plan and a package of social assistance to the population, Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia said that those entrepreneurs who were officially registered on the website of the Ministry of Finance Income Service could also use compensation and did not pay taxes. In a pandemic, the state will not recover from them for past non-payments. And in order to receive compensation, each such unregistered entrepreneur only had to submit to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance some document confirming that they carried out certain activities in a particular territory. It should be noted that many entrepreneurs refrained from the compensation promised by the state, noting that 300 lari is not the amount for which it is worth reporting taxes unpaid to the state over the previous years.