Mamuka Khazaradze, chairman of TBC Bank’s Supervisory Board leaves TBC Bank. He has released the regarding statement on social networks:

“Dear friends, first of all, I want to thank you for your friendship, support and the job that we did together during 27 years.

There are stages in life when we have to make important decisions. I have had such stages many times before and I am dealing with it currently.

I do not repeat what kind of attack our bank is facing. As a result, our international shareholders suffered a loss of 200 million dollars in one month, therefore our country has been seriously damaged as well. Without any investigation or court decision, they seriously stained our reputation by accusing us of alleged money laundering, non-existence of which has been internationally recognized.

Unfortunately, none of the state civil servants, neither PM nor ministers, has expressed a desire to personally meet us and get information about a case that is very important both for our team and our country, despite the fact that I personally wrote to some of them and sent relevant documents to them. Instead, I heard their comments in the public space.

I realized that the goal was to discredit me, I realized that they are fighting against our success, I realized that the company’s growth should be limited in Georgia.

Such an attack on me affects our bank’s reputation.

The bank cannot be in a long court dispute with its regulator, especially if the latter is not free in its decisions, despite the high degree of independence granted by the law.

Today, the Bank’s Supervisory Board in London took a decision to suspend the legal dispute with the National Bank only for the interests of the Bank, its shareholders and depositors.

Accordingly, I made a decision to leave the bank where I spent 27 years, the bank that I, together with my team, turned from 500 USD into the largest player in the region.

Hopefully, this decision will positively affect the bank’s development in a stable and calm environment. I will dedicate my energy to our country’s very important project – the Anaklia project. Hopefully, I will be allowed to complete the project.

On Tuesday, as I promised the parliament and the society, I will attend a hearing in the parliamentary committee to quietly discuss the case in detail.

At the same time, I will continue to legally defend my rights as a private person in Georgia and abroad”, – reads the statement of Mamuka Khazaradze.

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) suspended the right of documents’ signing to Mamuka Khazaradze, Chairman of Supervisory Board of TBC Bank and his deputy Badri Japaridze. The decision was made during the sitting of NBG’s Supervisory Committee of Finance Sector on February 13, 2019. The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) gave TBC Bank’s shareholders two months notice to remove the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Mamuka Khazaradze and his deputy Badri Japaridze from the Supervisory Board.

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia launched criminal investigation on the fact of legalization of illegal income on 2 August 2018. As the Prosecutor’s Office announced earlier in January, TBC Bank is facing criminal investigation over money-laundering allegations involving a USD 17 million transaction that took place in 2008.