The Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced today that the recently-released audio recordings, describing the alleged corruption schemes involving former top officials, were fake.
In a statement released on October 5, the Prosecutor’s Office said it retrieved the audio recordings from various media outlets, and conducted forensic analysis to verify their authenticity and identify the persons featuring in the recordings.
The Prosecutor’s Office then noted, citing the conclusion issued by the National Forensics Bureau, that the audio tapes “were not authentic and they have been doctored.”
“The examination identified numerous content-related inconsistencies in the conversations, unnatural, incompatible intonations; numerous cuts of words and sentences,” it said.
The audio recordings were first leaked after employees and owners of Iberia TV accused the authorities of pressure and artificially creating financial problems to the Omega Group’s cigarette production company – Omega Group Tobacco (OGT).
Omega Group is the owner and the main funding source of Iberia TV.
Levan Kipiani, the sports and youth affairs minister in 2012-2015, who was featuring in nearly all of the recordings, said on October 3 that the audio tapes were “staged” for curing the financial problems of Zaza Okuashvili, owner of the Omega Group business conglomerate.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)