The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has arrested Levan Kupatashvili, the former Deputy Chairman of the Roads Department, in connection with the collapse of a bridge on the Samtredia–Grigoleti highway. The announcement was made by Malkhaz Kapanadze, head of the Department for Combating Corruption Crimes, during a briefing at the Prosecutor’s Office.
Kapanadze stated that criminal proceedings have been launched against five individuals for abuse of official authority, document forgery, large-scale embezzlement and fraudulent appropriation of state funds.
The investigation revealed that the Roads Department of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure signed a contract with the construction company ‘Akkord’ to build an 11.5-kilometer section of the Samtredia–Grigoleti highway and related bridge crossings in 2018. Supervision was assigned to a joint consortium of four international companies while the Roads Department oversaw daily on-site control.
However, the probe found that no authorized experts from the supervision consortium were ever present in Georgia and no real monitoring of the construction took place, information that the Roads Department was aware of. Despite this, forged performance reports were signed and approved by Kupatashvili and falsely verified by an international expert who was not in the country.
Using these falsified documents, payments were made for unexecuted or substandard work. The investigation found that 1,172,539 GEL was transferred to the foreign expert through Kupatashvili while the construction company fraudulently obtained 3,859,678 GEL. Following the bridge’s collapse in February 2023, over 12 million GEL was spent on restoration, bringing the total damage to the state to more than 16 million GEL.
Kupatashvili has been charged with abuse of power, embezzlement and official misconduct, offenses punishable by up to 11 years in prison. The director and project managers of ‘Akkord’ face charges of fraud, forgery and embezzlement, carrying sentences of up to 9 years. Additionally, the chief engineer of the international consortium has been charged in absentia with aiding in the fraud and document forgery.
The Prosecutor’s Office stated it will request pre-trial detention for all accused individuals and that the investigation remains ongoing to identify any other officials or companies involved.
