Freezing Company Accounts and Assets During a Georgian Criminal Investigation
Obtain the operative decision, identify the property, owner, amount, legal basis, duration and review route, and separate alleged proceeds from legitimate operating funds. Prepare source and ownership evidence and document the restriction's effect on payroll, taxes, customers and contractual obligations without moving or concealing property contrary to law.
Why this issue changes business decisions
A bank account can contain revenue from many periods, customers and activities. Defence analysis should not rely on a global assertion that all funds are legitimate. It should trace opening balances, incoming payments, transfers, ownership, contractual basis and the transactions said to connect the property with the alleged offence.
Business-continuity evidence can matter to proportionality and the practical relief requested. Management should quantify payroll, taxes, protected third-party funds, secured obligations and essential supplier payments. That analysis must remain accurate and must not be used to create sham priorities or transfer value beyond the order.
What the official Georgian sources show
The Criminal Procedure Code contains procedures affecting property and evidence. The legal basis and available challenge depend on the actual measure and decision, so generic labels such as freeze or seizure are insufficient. Official source
The Criminal Code provides confiscation-related consequences and legal-person sanctions in specified circumstances. Potential sentence and investigative restriction are separate questions and should not be conflated. Official source
The Prosecutor's Office conducts prosecution and provides procedural guidance for investigations, while the competent court performs the judicial functions assigned by criminal procedure. Official source
Money-laundering and financial-crime analysis often depends on ownership, source, alleged predicate conduct, transaction route and knowledge. A bank's AML restriction or inquiry is not itself a criminal judgment. Official source
Decisions to record before the company acts
Create a property schedule identifying legal owner, controller, source and business purpose.
Trace disputed and undisputed funds separately using reproducible bank and ledger evidence.
Quantify legitimate third-party and continuity effects with contracts and due dates.
Coordinate procedural applications with tax, bank, creditor, employment and governance communications.
Issues counsel should connect
Transaction reconstruction
Build a source-referenced chronology across contracts, delivery, invoicing, accounting, tax and banking records.
Tax and customs
Connect the criminal allegation with the underlying tax position, audit history, declarations, valuation, classification and professional advice.
Fraud and company assets
Analyse representations, reliance, authority, ownership, benefit, loss and how funds or assets moved.
Money laundering
Examine alleged predicate conduct, source and ownership of property, transaction purpose, documentation and the knowledge attributed to each person.
Regulated activity
Review licences, registrations and the real operating model in illegal-entrepreneurship or virtual-asset matters.
Property restrictions
Challenge or narrow restrictions where the statutory basis, ownership, proportionality or legitimate business impact permits.
Expert evidence
Frame clear instructions for accounting, tax, valuation, digital or industry experts and test the assumptions in opposing analysis.
Court defence
Prepare an element-by-element evidentiary case and address admissibility, attribution, amount and causation.
A practical sequence for this matter
- 1
Confirm the allegation, period, persons, entities, transactions and procedural measures.
- 2
Preserve and collect primary commercial, accounting, tax, customs and bank evidence.
- 3
Reconcile the general ledger and filings to transaction-level documents and actual performance.
- 4
Identify authority, knowledge, benefit, professional dependencies and contested calculations for each person.
- 5
Instruct appropriate independent expertise and test the methodology used to calculate income, tax, loss or property.
- 6
Prepare procedural and merits submissions and coordinate the effect on banking, tax, licences and operations.
Documents and evidence
- procedural notices and decisions
- contracts, orders and amendments
- delivery, transport and acceptance records
- invoices, credit notes and payment instructions
- bank statements and source-of-funds evidence
- general ledger and account reconciliations
- tax returns, audit acts and correspondence
- customs declarations and supporting documents
- licences and regulatory registrations
- ownership and beneficial-owner records
- board and management approvals
- expert reports and calculation models
Risks to test
- the accounting entry is analysed without the underlying transaction
- company and personal funds are not distinguished
- tax assessment figures are treated as final criminal proof
- professional advice is asserted without retaining its scope and assumptions
- loss or illicit income is calculated without a reproducible method
- a bank narrative conflicts with contracts and invoices
- property belonging to third parties is not identified
- employees give inconsistent descriptions of the same approval process
Official public sources used
This publication cites only legislation, registries and regulators. It does not rely on other law firms or competitor commentary as authority.