Fictitious claimant and millions spent on another dispute against Georgia - What did opposition Lelo party leaders, Khazaradze and Japaridze, conceal this time?

New information suggests that opposition leaders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze are the driving force behind a recent, unsuccessful investment lawsuit filed against the Georgian Government at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington D.C., according to a report by Imedi TV.

The claim, tied to the Anaklia Port project, was officially filed by Dutch investor Bob Meyer. However, Imedi TV reports that the leaders of the opposition Lelo party transferred a total of $6.8 million from TBC Bank to Meyer.

The timing of the transaction raises serious questions. The contract between the Lelo leaders and Meyer was reportedly signed in August, just one month after Meyer lost his arbitration case in Washington. The ICSID tribunal not only rejected Meyer's $64 million claim against Georgia but also ordered him to pay the Georgian Government $6.5 million.

The close match between the funds transferred by Khazaradze/Japaridze ($6.8 million) and the penalty Meyer was ordered to pay the Georgian Government ($6.5 million) has led to speculation: was Bob Meyer a merely nominal claimant, and were Khazaradze and Japaridze secretly backing the latest lawsuit against the Georgian state?

Lelo members initially claimed that their leaders' business activities are of no interest to the party. This stance contrasts sharply with their months-long attacks on the Government, during which they argued that other investors, beyond their leaders, were also suing the state over the Anaklia issue.

“I don't know, I can't tell you. The relationships between my party members and their business partners are none of my business”, Lelo party member Tazo Datunashvili said.

“If you are interested, I will tell you simply, Mamuka [Khazaradze] will answer you in a live broadcast - invite him”, Lelo party member Levan Samushia said.

The Ministry of Justice is also the defendant in the lawsuit against Georgia by Bob Meyer. As Beka Dzamashvili, the Deputy Minister of Justice, said during the consideration of Meyer's lawsuit, Khazaradze and Japaridze were physically present at the proceedings, therefore there were no doubts that both disputes were created by them.

“When we attended the sessions, Khazaradze and Japaridze were among the representatives of the parties in the Bob Meyer dispute. Third parties cannot attend this session. There should have been representatives of either one or the other side, and they represented Bob Meyer's side, and they regularly attended the sessions. Accordingly, there is no doubt, nor are there any questions about the fact that both disputes were created by them, and as for the payment of the amount, it is logical that if such an agreement was reached between them, it is logical that they could have taken on the payment of this certain amount themselves”, Dzamashvili said.

“Naturally, it is understandable, or rather, it is logical why they might be trying to distance themselves from the lost dispute today. However, those factual circumstances are the case. They were absolutely jointly involved in both cases, and today it will be impossible for them to distance themselves from these lost disputes”, he noted.

Ruling party officials have suggested that Khazaradze and Japaridze used Meyer as a shield to mask another attempt to act against the state, especially after their previous defeat in a related Paris arbitration, which they paid without appeal, effectively admitting fault.

“Because Mr. Khazaradze and Mr. Japaridze lost the Paris arbitration where they were publicly embarrassed and it was revealed there that they wanted to take a billion and a half dollars from our country's budget, then Mr. Meyer filed this lawsuit in the Washington arbitration, so that in case of losing, let's say, Mr. Japaridze, Khazaradze could avoid this shame. However, in this case, of course, the public cannot be misled and everyone understands that they were acting in synchrony”, Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party faction said.

As Imedi TV reported, Bob Meyer, in addition to being an investor in Khazaradze's Anaklia Deep Sea Port project, was also a shareholder and partner in a Georgian business, Geoplant LLC and a member of the supervisory board of Tbilisi Central.