After Irakli Kobakhidze, the chairman of the ruling party Georgian Dream, stated that it was unconstitutional to freeze the accounts of the US-sanctioned former Prosecutor General of Georgia in Georgian banks, the National Bank of Georgia changed the procedure for enforcing sanctions. The National Bank no longer obliges commercial banks to impose sanctions on Partskhaladze.
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The order tailored to the interests of Partskhaladze, which was published in the Legislative Gazette on September 19, is signed by Natela Turnava, acting president of the National Bank and former Minister of Economy.
The order reads:
‘’Exception related to citizens of Georgia:
- The sanctions regime provided for in this rule apply to:
- a) A citizen of Georgia, if a legally binding judgment of conviction has been issued by the court of Georgia in connection with the basis of the sanctions imposed on him;
- b) A legal entity registered in Georgia, the share of which is owned by a sanctioned Georgian citizen (s), if a legally binding judgment of conviction has been issued by a Georgian court on the basis of the imposed sanctions.
- The National Bank of Georgia is obliged to immediately inform the relevant bodies for further response if signs of crime are detected during the supervision process,’’ - the order came into effect immediately after its publication, i.e. from today.
On September 18, the National Bank announced that ‘’Georgia's financial sector is instructed to take into account the requirements set by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for persons included in the list of sanctioned persons (SDN list), which implies the limitation of access to assets and execution of financial transactions by sanctioned persons.’’
On September 14, news broke that the USA imposed sanctions on the former chief prosecutor of Georgia, Otar Partskhaladze. The State Department document names Partskhaladze as a Georgian-Russian oligarch with whom Russia's Federal Security Service [FSB] worked to influence Georgian society and politics in Russia's favor.
