Georgian billionaire receives confiscated funds

Big sum of cash money, confiscated previously as a result of special operation, were returned to Georgian billioner Bidzina Ivanishvili's Kartu bank, prosecutors said on Thursday in Georgia. The money was confiscated on October 18, 2011, while in a collector car of Kartu Bank.

The car was detained by the police after it took off from the head office of Bank of Georgia. The operation was carried out in connection with an investigation of money laundering, Georgian Interior Ministry said. Some $2 million and one million euro were confiscated.

The Kartu Bank stated that the money was transferred from accounts in Germany and the US to the Bank of Georgia and taken from there in cash. The Bank cited the need "to meet the increased customer demand for cash currency" while commenting this operation, Civil Georgia reported.

The bank rejected the charges of money laundering. Confiscation of money was regarded by the bank as a revenge of authority to the owner of the bank, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who recently came out against the President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili.

According to prosecutors, the money, $2 million and one million euro was returned to the bank by "bank transfer." The special operation was conducted after Ivanishvili went into opposition and announced his intention to win the parliamentary elections.

/Trend/