First came shock. Then, embarrassment. And finally, anger.
That was the emotional trajectory for many Georgians as they learned about a call center in Tbilisi, where smooth-talking fraudsters had convinced thousands of unsuspecting victims abroad to hand over their life savings for investments that never existed.
The details were damning. Investigative reporters exposed the sheer scale of the scam—a network of nearly 85 employees who had siphoned more than $35.3 million from over 6,100 victims since May 2022. Worse, they had done so with stunning arrogance, mocking their targets and bragging about their exploits in private conversations.
“We had all heard rumors that such operations existed, but seeing the inner workings like this—hearing their voices, watching them at work—was shocking,” said Tsisi Moistsrapeishvili, a 26-year-old Georgian citizen who followed the exposé closely.
Georgians weren’t just reading about the scam. They were listening. Audio recordings of call center employees speaking to their victims painted a picture of heartless cruelty. In one clip, a man realizes he has lost everything and threatens to report the scam to the police. The response is chilling.
“I can scam whoever I want, and it’s not your [expletive] business! Your life is ruined,” sneered one of the top scammers, Mariam Charchian, who went by the alias Mary Roberts.
When the desperate man insisted he would report her, she erupted in laughter.
“You’re so stupid. Even if you call the police of Canada, the police of Quebec, the police of Alberta, the police of Calgary, the police of Ontario—and the police of the entire world—you will never find my real passport. You’re [expletive] dumb!”
For many Georgians, it was almost too much to process.
“When the Canadian man said, ‘They took my last penny,’ the first thing I felt was shame,” said Luka Chokharadze, 30. “But I was very glad that in the end, you uncovered everything and found those people—you cleansed this stain from our country,” he added, praising the reporters.
One TikTok user shared a video of herself sitting in disbelief, listening to Mary Roberts taunt her victim. The caption revealed a personal connection: “When you realize that this girl was your parallel classmate and you’ve spent 18 years in the same space.”
“It’s horrifying, humiliating, and deeply shameful,” Tea Rench-Daraselia, 61, told OCCRP. “I tried to remember the names and faces of these young people so that if I ever see them somewhere, I can tell them: ‘You have embarrassed me, my family, and our country. You have disgraced yourselves. Was it really worth it?’”
A good question.
After the investigation was published, Georgian authorities moved swiftly, freezing the assets of several key figures behind the scheme. But for many, that wasn’t enough. They wanted arrests, trials, convictions. Prosecutors launched an investigation.
Still, Moistsrapeishvili directed her anger at law enforcement.
“If journalists were able to investigate and uncover this, how did the State Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs not know about it before?” she asked. “Protesters are harassed over a single [social media] post, their homes are raided, and everything is monitored—so I don’t believe that the State Security Service didn’t know about this.”
“I have a very strong stance against those 85 shameless young people and their parents,” said Marine Tavberidze, a Georgian living abroad..
She also questioned how the scammers’ families could have ignored the sudden influx of wealth.
“Where does all this income come from—off the backs of others' hard work? Don’t their spouses, mothers, or fathers ever ask where all this money is coming from?” she wondered.
While many expressed shame and revulsion, others pointed to deeper issues in Georgian society that may have driven young people into the scam.
“These young people are tempted by high salaries,” said Chokharadze. “There are no opportunities in the country for someone to get an education, learn a foreign language, and then go on to find a decent and suitable job.”
Indeed. The average monthly income in Georgia is $750. The high-performing staffers made even over $20,000 some months.
Rench-Daraselia said she was horrified that Georgia had become a hub for fraud. “If there were real prospects, an educated young person probably wouldn’t go down this path,” she added.
The scandal erupted at a time of mounting political unrest in Georgia. For months, protesters have filled the streets over allegations of election fraud and the government’s delay in pursuing EU membership.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s youth have been leaving in droves. According to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI),163,480 Georgians emigrated in 2023. A staggering 70%—or 114,438 individuals—were under the age of 30, including 43% (70,003) who were children under 15.
With few economic opportunities at home, it was clear that some of those who stayed had found their own way to make money—by preying on the vulnerable.
And they weren’t shy about showing off their wealth.
Georgians were also stunned to discover that one of the scammers had flown to her wedding in a helicopter. She had posted pictures of the moment on social media. Others flaunted their luxury vacations and extravagant lifestyles.
But it wasn’t the taken money that disturbed people the most. It was the sheer cruelty.
“The scale of their cruelty is astonishing—telling someone, ‘Go kill yourself!’ That makes them, in a way, potential murderers,” said Ketevan Labadze, 33. “This isn’t just theft.”
