UNM lawmaker and two others released on bail in property scandal

Rusudan Kervalishvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Rusudan Kervalishvili, a former lawmaker for the National Movement party, and her sister Maya Rcheulishvili, who are accused of running a ponzi scheme through a construction company they founded, have been released on USD 150 000 bail each.

The Prosecutor’s Office wanted to place the third charged in the case, Ivane Tsaguria, founder of Dexus, in preliminary detention, but Tbilisi City Court released him on USD 60 000 bail on Saturday.

All three will have to pay the bail money within 30 days.

Investigarors say Center Point and Dexus, two construction companies, are engaged in illegal appropriation of money from clients.

Kervalishvili was satisfied with the decision.

“I want to thank judge for giving me the opportunity to continue work and for releasing Ivane Tsaguria. I still don’t know how I’m supposed to pay this money, but the decision was unexpected for me,” she said adding that she is also glad that Ivane Tsaguria was released on bail.

Rcheulishvili said that they are working on correcting what went wrong with the housing projects at the center of the scandal and expect to have fulfilled their obligations toward all clients in one year, as all the suspended construction projects are resumed.

The last few years, Center Point and Dexus customers have held many demonstrations after they paid money that was to be spent on constructing new apartment blocks, but were left without apartments.

A pretrial hearing in the case will be held September 4, 2013.