BBC has published an investigative piece on a billion-dollar scam titled "the scammers who will steal your life savings".
In the article, which is mainly devoted to the fraudulent appropriation of the savings of people of retirement age, the former Minister of Defense of Georgia, Davit Kezerashvili, is mentioned as one of the main organizers.
According to the BBC, while working on the article, they began to study publicly available corporate documents to determine the connection between the Milton group companies involved in the scheme. The article states that 5 names emerged in this process - Davit Todua, Rati Chelidze, Guram Gogeshvili, Joseph Mgeladze and Michael Benimini, who were referred to as the heads of Milton's trading platform or supporting technical companies. BBC also found the names of four of these people: Chelidze, Gogeshvili, Mgeladze and Benimini in the Panama Papers documents.
The article states that the companies whose directors are listed are related to the former Minister of Defense of Georgia, Davit Kezerashvili.
In addition, the article states that there were no publicly available documents linking Kezerashvili to the Milton network, although according to Panama Papers documents, he was named as the founder or one of the initial shareholders of the network's parent companies.
"There were no publicly available documents linking Kezerashvili to this pre-Milton network, but when we looked at the Panama Papers, his name came up again and again, identifying him as either the founder of the parent companies in the network or as one of their initial shareholders. Behind the scenes, Kezerashvili appeared to be at the centre of that network.
When it came to the Milton group, there was similarly no publicly available documentation linking Kezerashvili to the scam companies, and there was no evidence that he had any direct financial interest in the Milton brands.
But several former employees of Milton-linked companies told us confidentially that they had had direct dealings with Kezerashvili and knew him to be involved in the Milton group," reads the article.
According to BBC, Kezerashvili has frequently promoted the scam trading platforms on his personal social media accounts. On the business networking site LinkedIn, he has used his account almost exclusively to promote jobs and share posts about Milton-linked companies.
As the agency notes, they tracked Kezerashvili to his £18m London mansion and asked to speak to him, but we were told he wasn't available. He told the BBC via his lawyers that he strongly denied any involvement with the Milton group, or that he gained financially from scams.
