The political dispute over the Georgian TBC bank, which is suspected of being involved money laundering, has increased since the request of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) on the resignation of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze.

Khazaradze announced his resignation from the TBC Bank Supervisory Board on February 21. Thus he met the corresponding demand of the National Bank of Georgia. This decision was taken to avoid negative effects on the investment climate in the country, Khazaradze said. The unclear situation surrounding the TBC bank has already resulted in international bank shareholders losing $ 200 million in one month. "This is related to the absurd allegations of money laundering, although an international investigation has proven that there was no money laundering", Khazaradze said. Both the TBC bank board and the Georgian opposition criticized the pressure exerted by the National Bank and the Attorney General's office on the TBC bank.

Georgian National Bank President, Koba Gvenetadze, said at a hearing in the Parliamentary Committee on the Economy and Economic Policy on 26 February that any challenge to the National Bank's decision regarding the TBC Bank was an attack on the independence of the regulatory agency.

The hearing of the NBG president was discontinued because the attendees could not agree whether the session should be public or confidential. In the opinion of Gvenetazde and the deputies of the "Georgian Dream", a public discussion on the case of the TBC bank would be "detrimental" to the financial market of the country, an assessment with which the opposition disagrees.

Mamuka Khazaradze himself was a proponent for a public hearing in parliament. "We are not here as  private entrepreneurs, the problem is not only with Mamuka Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze or "TBC". This case is linked to the country's reputation and stability ... So we thought that Parliament could be a place where we could provide objective information to the Georgian people, society and legislators", Khazaradze said.

Opposition supports public hearing in the parliament

The Georgian opposition is critical of current developments surrounding the TBC bank. The president of the National Bank must give up his office because he is "Bidsina Ivanishvili's hostage and a prisoner of the circumstances," said the leader of the United National Movement, Roman Gotsiridze. "Today we had to realize once again that all state authorities in Georgia are controlled by one person in the Glass Palace. Today, this person prohibited us from discussing this important issue in parliament, "he claimed.

The leader of the Georgian opposition party "European Georgia", David Bakhradze, described the refusal of the NBG president to attend a hearing in parliament as a violation of the law. The NBG President is legally obliged to attend the hearing in Parliament. The behavior of the President of the National Bank was disrespectful to the parliament and the people of Georgia, according to the opposition politician.

The opposition claims that the founder and chairman of the governing party of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has his own business interests in the deep-sea port project "Anaklia" and that this is the real reason for the "attack" on the TBC bank.

Georgia's Attorney Generalship announced on January 9, 2019, that it had opened an investigation against TBC Bank for potential money laundering and "other illicit acts". "We started a money laundering investigation on August 2, 2018. The case concerns the developments in 2008 when LTD Samgori M and LTD Samgori Trade received a $ 17 million loan from TBC Bank in the shortest time without providing real estate, "the prosecutor's statement said.

According to the statement, the head of TBC, Mamuka Khazaradze, and another representative of the bank, Badri Japaridze, received the same amount of credit as private individuals from TBC at the same time as when the money was deposited in the companies' accounts. In addition, the prosecutor said TBC had written off corporate debt at the end of 2008 without giving a reason and exempted the companies in 2012 from any financial obligations to the bank.

TBC Bank is the largest bank in Georgia. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE 250 Index.