Tbilisi City Court has found 14 people guilty of scamming tourists in two Tbilisi clubs.
On Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that the court had fully agreed to their motion to convict 14 people, including the owner of Tbilisi nightclubs Kalakuri and Royal, for targeting foreign nationals with fraud.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the owner of the two clubs set up a group of five individuals to run a scheme in which ‘promo girls’ contacted tourists in Tbilisi through social media, and arranged to meet them in the clubs.
After having food and drinks ordered on their behalf by the women, tourists were given unreasonably high bills and faced intimidation and ‘psychological pressure’ if they tried to evade paying.
The case revolved around ₾9,340 ($3,500) which was scammed from ‘six citizens of Yemen, Egypt, India, Sudan, and Belarus’.
The owner of the clubs and five leading members of the group were convicted of fraud by an organised group that caused substantial damage, with the club owner sentenced to eight years and six months in prison, and two club managers to eight years each. The other defendants avoided prison sentences through plea bargains.
The defendants were arrested in March, and investigators claimed to have seized a total of $9,100 in cash in seven currencies.
A recurring issue
Dozens of negative reviews online of Kalakuri warning of the scam date back to three years ago, with similar reviews of Royal club…
