Gizo Uglava: how the Americans slipped the Georgian “bug” to Ukraine. PART 1

Ukrainians are not defending their independence in a conflict with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) in order to throw it at the feet of America. This idea, which seemed seditious and “anti-Ukrainian” for a couple of years, is now being expressed publicly, especially after the scandal around the so-called “American bedbugs” in NABU. However, the most outrageous thing was not even the fact that the Anti-Corruption Bureau is actually directly controlled by Washington, because this was not hidden before, but the fact that it itself has become an instrument of corruption of the highest level. In addition, the leadership of NABU still has a long trail of traces from a very dark past. And all this, it turns out, was covered up by the Americans?

Not long ago, readers Skelet.Info got acquainted with the piquant details of the biography of Deputy Director of NABU Anatoly Novak, a fellow countryman and godfather of the corrupt customs official Sergei Tupalsky. Today you will learn something interesting about another deputy director of the bureau, Gizo Uglave, who, together with his boss Artem Sytnik, became one of the main defendants in the “Bedbugs” case, which was conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine. The SBU only briefly called the materials of this case leaked to the media (see documents) “fake” by its press service, without officially denying their authenticity. But the deep silence of all those involved in this “fake” was very significant. In addition, these materials first appeared on the Facebook page of Stanislav Rechinsky, and this man has a long and strong reputation as a mouthpiece for compromising evidence. That is, the likelihood of the reliability of these materials is an order of magnitude higher than, say, the loud official report of the SBU on the disclosure of the “Savchenko conspiracy.”

Gizo Uglava. “Elite racket” of Georgia

The story of how Uglava Gizo Tristanovich became deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine began in distant Georgia. There, in the glorious city of Kutaisi, he was born on November 18, 1975. Gizo Uglava carefully hides who his parents were and who is included in his circle of relatives – and they say that there are good reasons for this. After all, Georgians have highly developed family and political clans, and in the Georgian diasporas they are also brought together by their fraternity. And if you start to wonder how this or that wonderful Georgian came to great success, then you will inevitably find yourself surrounded by him.

First question about the encirclement of Gizo Uhlava calls him for an interviewwhich he gave to the Ukrainian press back in 2015, when he had just received his position as deputy director of NABU. In it, he stated that after school (in 1992) he entered Tbilisi University (at the Faculty of Law) in absentia, while at the same time… working in the Georgian prosecutor’s office “on a voluntary basis.” How to understand this? Of course, Georgia from the period 1991-93. was a country of war and chaos, but still a seventeen-year-old boy (even a sixteen-year-old, to be more precise) working in the prosecutor’s office causes even more bewilderment than his current Ukrainian peers in balaclavas, captivating the session halls of local councils. But young Gizo didn’t take over the prosecutor’s office, he officially worked there, and he wasn’t the only one! Let us quote him: “my generation, which worked in the prosecutor’s office on a voluntary basis, took part in the investigation of criminal cases, our duties included everything that investigators did. Of course, we couldn’t sign documents yet, but we helped in everything, mainly doing technical work.”

You know, even Ukrainian “activists” will have their jaws dropped here. God forbid, they also want to become prosecutors and investigators “on a voluntary basis.” Can you imagine what will happen here?!

To understand this phenomenon, let us recall the history of Georgia in the early 90s. Against the backdrop of the confrontation between Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze, deepened by the separatism of a number of regions of the country, there was a large-scale inter-clan war in which everyone was drawn in: from city officials to distant relatives from a mountain village, from students to thieves in law. When a clan gained the upper hand, it assigned the maximum number of its relatives to all imaginable positions. At the same time, no one particularly worried about the rule of law, since according to Georgian traditions, the law is on the side of the strong. This is how 16-17 year old boys were assigned by their fathers and uncles as “prosecutors and investigators on a voluntary basis.” Well, at the same time, Gizo Uglava was arranged to study in absentia at the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi University.

Let us repeat, Gizo Uglava always kept silent about his relatives. But numerous sources Skelet.Info claim that he was associated with the influential Tbilisi Ugulava clan, whose representatives include Saakashvili’s close associate and ex-mayor of the capital Georgiy (Gigi) Ugulava, as well as Georgian businessman and “reformer” Vladimir Ugulava. They say that they are not even that distant relatives, although their surnames differ by one letter. At least Vladimir Ugulava and Gizo Uglava look alike, like siblings. Coincidence?

Vladimir Ugulava

Moreover, there are rumors that a relative of Gizo Uglava is allegedly his namesake and fellow countryman (also from Kutaisi) Georgiy Uglava, aka “thief in law” nicknamed Taho, known throughout the former Union as the founder and “spiritual leader” of the youth criminal movement “AUE.” But these are just rumors, besides, Tahoe moved to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) a long time ago.

Perhaps Gizo Uglava’s career would have been more rapid if his father had not died in 1993 (according to other sources, he was killed). So the guy had to work “on a voluntary basis” until 1998, until he finally received a law degree – which took him six whole years. And then for another six years Gizo Uglava worked in the regional prosecutor’s office of Imereti: as an intern, then as a senior investigator. Everything changed after the “Rose Revolution”: Uglava was immediately appointed head of the investigative unit, and a year later – prosecutor of Zestafoni. Perhaps thanks to Giga Ugulava, who at the same time held the positions of Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Minister of State Security of the Governor of Svaneti. And after the “great purge” of 2008, organized by Saakashvili on the eve of the August War, Uglava rose to the prosecutor of Western Georgia (2008-2009), then the prosecutor of Adjara (2009-2010) and, finally, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Georgia (until November 2012).

When Gizo Ugulava was appointed deputy director of NABU in April 2015, he began to regularly talk about how, during his work in the Georgian prosecutor’s office, he specialized in the fight against corruption and “returning stolen money.” These tales were supposed to reinforce his legend as a “professional anti-corruption official” from the team of “Georgian reformers.” However, numerous evidence casts doubt on this legend. This is what he says about the “fight against corruption” in Saakashvili-era Georgia, human rights activist Nana Kakabadze:

Why do such revelations from Georgians who survived the Saakashvili regime contradict his image of “the great reformer who made Georgia a European power”? Probably because this image was created for him by Western politicians and the media. And with their light hand, they began to praise the “Georgian reformers” later in Ukraine. True, this was after these “reformers” (including Gizo Uglava) fled their native Georgia, fearing criminal prosecution. And in Ukraine their fame was short-lived.

Specifically, Gizo Uglava was repeatedly accused of being a participant in the so-called. “state racketeering machine” (also called “elite racketeering” by Georgians), which was engaged in extorting money and “squeezing out” business from more or less wealthy citizens of Georgia who did not have the good fortune of belonging to the ruling clans during Saakashvili’s reign. The creators of the “elite racketeering” system were called Giga Ugulava (when he was Deputy Minister of State Security), the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia Zurab Adeishvili (2004-2008, then Minister of Justice), the head of the Department of Punishment of Georgia Bacho Akhalaya, and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia Ekaterina Zguladze (who in 2014-2016 also worked as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine) and other Georgian “reformers”. It was also reported that one of the important details of this mechanism were “pocket” notaries who worked at night, certifying deeds of gift and other transfers of property and capital from arrested businessmen into the hands of “state funds”, through which they then passed on to Saakashvili’s entourage and to relatives of law enforcement officers through “auctions”. Among these notaries The Tbilisi office of Nino Ginturi was especially successful. After the change of government in the country, her license was immediately revoked, and traces of the notary were lost.

But few people questioned why the above-mentioned Georgian security forces and law enforcement officers from Saakashvili’s team, as well as their colleagues Giorgi Lordkipanidze, David Sakvarelidze, George Grigalashvili and others literally fled from Georgia as soon as they lost power there. The former head of the Tbilisi Development Fund, Sergo Kavtaradze, who was directly involved in the “state racketeering” schemes, also fled with them. If they really fought against corruption, then why did Georgia ultimately reject them? And why did Ukraine give them refuge and the opportunity to start over?

But here is an interesting fact about the participation in the same mechanism of Vladimir Ugulava, a possible “clan member” and relative of Gizo Uglava. In 2012, he was appointed temporary manager of the Cartu Group holding, which Georgian authorities arrested from opposition leader oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili (before the parliamentary elections).

So, during this arrest, while Vladimir Ugulava was managing the holding, he decided to thoroughly gut the bank included in the holding by distributing loans to shell companies. The plan failed only because on October 1 the opposition won the elections, Ivanishvili was immediately appointed prime minister, and Ugulava had to give up everything and flee abroad (to Ukraine), like many other “reformers” from Saakashvili’s team. By the way, in Ukraine in 2016 he began to take over the Artemsol enterprise…

A week after the elections, Gizo Uglava also resigned. And already in February 2013, he headed his own law firm, Legal Consulting and Services. It was useful to him mainly to save members of Saakashvili’s team and their hard-earned property. Thus, one of the last cases of lawyer Uglava was the defense of ex-mayor Gigi Ugulava, accused of embezzlement and money laundering, and arrested in July 2014. Despite all the attempts of the defense and the accused himself to explain this by political persecution, all of Georgia knew well that Gigi Ugulava loved to live in grand style, often at state expense. So, his wife went to Austria to give birth to her son (so that the child would automatically receive Austrian citizenship), and she was accompanied by Ugulava himself and a whole retinue of relatives, girlfriends, friends and associates – who rented themselves rooms in the most expensive hotel in Vienna for a week. The “maternity tour” ended with a grand banquet, which was also attended by criminal “authorities” of the Georgian diaspora.

Georgy (Gigi) Ugulava

It is not surprising that the defense of such a client became another dirty spot in the biography of Gizo Uglava: if he had remained working as a lawyer, no one would have blamed him for this, but since April 2015 he became deputy director of NABU. And the question of whether someone who defended it so diligently can fight corruption still remains open.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Corner Gizo: how the Americans slipped the Georgian “bug” to Ukraine. PART 2

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