Georgian Parliament Speaker labels Lelo party as “fraudulent”, accuses its leaders of “deception” following Washington arbitration ruling

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Sunday publicly accused the opposition Lelo party of being a “party of fraudsters”.

The Georgian Ministry of Justice on Thursday announced that the leaders of the opposition Lelo party Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze lost their arbitration case concerning the Anaklia Port project at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington D.C.

In a social media message, he claimed that both the financial and political fraud of the party’s leaders, Khazaradze and Japaridze, have been fully exposed and confirmed by multiple courts.

“For the fourth day now, the Washington arbitration has confirmed what the Paris arbitration and the Georgian judiciary had previously stated - Khazaradze and Japaridze, through fraudulent lawsuits, attempted to syphon off $1.5 billion (15 percent of Georgia’s budget) from the public’s pocket. Previously, it was also confirmed through the courts that Khazaradze and Japaridze fraudulently misappropriated $17 million entrusted to their bank by depositors”, the Speaker said.

He further criticised the Lelo party’s founding as a deceptive scheme, with Khazaradze allegedly leveraging a victim narrative to advance his agenda.

“Today, the financial and political fraud of Khazaradze and Japaridze has been fully exposed and confirmed both domestically and internationally. It has been proven that the Government acted in good faith at every stage, while Khazaradze’s founding of the Lelo party under the guise of a victim was part of his fraudulent plan”, he continued.

Papuashvili also questioned the silence of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which he noted typically responds swiftly to Khazaradze’s issues.

“It is strange that, for four days, nothing has been heard from ALDE, which at other times quickly responds to Khazaradze’s issues. Yet the question is simple: how compatible is it with ALDE’s moral standards (which are already shaky) to have individuals in their ranks who have been convicted of fraud and whose fraudulent lawsuits, aimed at seizing 15 percent of the country’s budget, have been exposed by international courts?” he said.

Papuashvili went on to criticise Lelo’s donors, members, and supporters, suggesting they are either unaware of the “primitive fraudulent scheme” or complicit in pursuing high-level fraud.

“A separate issue is the party’s top donors, members, and supporters, who either lack the intelligence to realise how primitive a fraudulent scheme they are part of or realise it but, following the example of the great schemer, aspire to top-level fraud. It is a fact that Lelo is a party of fraudsters, and membership or support for the party of fraudsters is complicity in fraud”, the Speaker concluded.