Scammer: Hello, Ms. Jennifer. I am calling you from the company “Golden Currency.”
Victim: I’m listening.
Scammer: Hello, Annabel, good evening… I am Esteban Fernandez, calling you regarding Bitcoin registration.
Scammer: Oksana, hello. My name is Leonid, I am calling you from the company “Admiral”…
Scammer: Hello, are you Ms. Hertzberg?
Scammer: Hello, this is Lana Limans. I am contacting you as your financial advisor from the company “Golden Currency.”
In reality, everyone is being deceived. None of the callers are representatives of the named companies. All of them are employees of a fraudulent call center operating in Georgia.
Studio Monitor,” together with OCCRP and over 30 media outlets, worked for months on a journalistic investigation. We examined hundreds of thousands of documents, phone calls, and records from work computers that had leaked from a fraudulent call center. These materials were obtained by Sweden’s public broadcaster, SVT. In this journalistic investigation, we will tell you about Georgian scammers (or rather, fraudsters), who promise victims high returns on investments, and then scam them.
We will reveal who is behind them and how the scheme works, in order to extort as much money as possible from people, from Europe to Canada.
One of the victims of a Georgian scammer is Canadian Marcel Deschamps. The 60-year-old man worked in a factory in Ontario and saved money for years. After falling into a fraudulent trap, he lost all of his savings. It all started with an advertisement posted on Facebook.
Marcel Deschamps: I found an add, add was sent to me, from the internet from Facebook. And it was promotion, , and it was promotion from actually there was a few of them that were showing Justin Trudeau backing that promotion or showing Elon Musk backing that promotion and quantum AI and are also showing Kevin O’Leary in that promotion, which is pretty much all fake… Yeah, they look like real. And there were promoting that you are going to quadruple your investments and all fake promises.
A fake advertisement posted on Facebook, where supposedly famous people are involved, encourages victims to invest in cryptocurrency. Captivated by the convincing ad, people click on the link. To learn more, the platform asks them to enter their contact information. After providing the details, these fake pages sell the information to fraudulent call centers, with one person’s contact details being sold for 1,000 euros. After this, the call center agents get involved in the process.
Marcel Deschamps: I did click on one of them and within five minutes I had a phone call already from them and they were saying that you are going to be redirected to not the finance department but the enrolling department. So I was once I was validated, I was asked to invest so much money with them so I could have a return. A good return. But they always tell you, like if it’s 350, the beginning investment. Then they will tell you, well, if you invest more like 1000 or 10,000, you’re going to have a way faster reward or return on your investment. And. So basically they’re there, and I guarantee you that. But they’re telling you you’re going to get a really big return on it.
In order to extort as much money as possible from the victim, the agent convinces them to download the AnyDesk app on their phone and computer.
Scammer: If my clients are struggling to find something that they need to find, to find how they trading experience goes, thats when I advice them to download an application called AnyDesk.
Scammer: Can you open AnyDesk? Can you do that?
Scammer: In your computer we need AnyDesk.
The leaked documents show that agents monitor every action of the victims on their computers and phones. They have full access to personal information, including bank accounts. As a result, the agents know exactly what savings each victim has.
Marcel Deschamps: Well, they have if you’re on their sites, they have their own. What are you glad they have their own platform? Platform? Yeah. And the money you put in, they’re entering the numbers. And you think that it’s your actual money going in there. Yeah, it looked legit because I was following the market on the computer at the same time and I was seeing that, yes, it is going up. So what they’re showing is actual. It’ll look real. Look really real.
Journalist: When did you start having doubts?
Marcel Deschamps: When you try to do a withdrawal. I never thought about that one. So when you do want to do at all and it’s always impossible to do because there’s always charges. More charges and more charges. But you never get it back. So it’s a scheme, a scam.
Employees of the call center scammed Marcel for months. They convinced the man to invest his entire life savings into fake cryptocurrency. Marcel was left with only dollars and didn’t know how he would pay his taxes. Soon, he received a call on his phone.
Scammer: This is Mary Roberts your financial advisor…
The woman called herself Mary Roberts and claimed to be a professional crypto expert. She promised Marcel that she would help him get his lost money back.
Marcel Deschamps: I trusted her. She sounded very convincing. And she said she was going to get my funds back. So she was asking back then for that amount of money to release the funds, which never happened. But she had contacted me through. It was a phone call the first time.
The woman who introduced herself to Marcel as Mary Roberts sent him fake photos to gain his trust. This is one of the tactics used by call center agents. Women mostly call men, send photos of models they find online, and deceive them into believing that they look like those models. Male agents, on the other hand, select women as their victims.
Marcel Deschamps: She was very nice, kind. She had a sweet voice. And she was a she was trying to be very friendly, over friendly.
Canada’s public broadcaster reminded Marcel of the phone call from Mary Roberts.
Audio clip with Mary Roberts: Marcel of course I give you the promise. I give you my word. I promise you, you will get it. Don’t worry. How do you mention me putting you in the trouble? I will never do that.
Marcel Deschamps: She will never do that. And she did. Advance money from my vacation to pay all my bills. That month. And she left me penniless for two weeks. Penniless.
When Marcel realized he had been scammed, he called Mary Roberts and threatened to report her to the Canadian police. Mary admitted that she had deceived Marcel and laughed at him. We obtained this phone recording from the leaked documents. Canada’s public broadcaster CBC played the audio recording for Marcel Deschamps once again.
Audio clip – Marcel: I want my money right now.
Audio clip with Mary Roberts: You will never see it in your entire life again.
Audio clip – Marcel: I’ve not one fucking dollar for my next two weeks. How the fuck am I supposed to live?
Audio clip with Mary Roberts: Marcel I will send you some money.
Audio clip with Mary Roberts: I might as well kill myself right now.
Audio clip with Mary Roberts: Just go ahead and kill yourself.
Audio clip – Marcel: You’re a liar.
Audio clip – Mary Roberts: But I’m really good at. I’m really good at it, right?
Audio clip – Marcel: So. So are you going to return that 3500 altogether to my bank account?
Audio clip – Mary Roberts: Do you think that with this attitude and with what you was telling to me, I would do this Marcel? .What do you think, how stupid am i?
Audio clip – Marcel: Tell you what. Tell you what. I’ll give it to the cops. We can reach Interpol. We have your picture on your passport still. So we still have the picture on the Internet, right?
Audio clip – Mary Roberts: Ha ha ha You are so laughy (?) You’re so stupid. Even if you’re going to call the police of Canada police of Quebec, police of Alberta, police of Calgary, police of Ontario and the police of the entire world, you will never find my real passport, you’re fucking dumb.
Frédéric Zalac: What do you think when you’re hearing that again?
Marcel Deschamps: Bad memories. Again, how can you be so sure of yourself when you’re investing and how can you be so gullible intrusting somebody that has scammed you like that. That woman has no remorse. No. No heart? No. Unreal. How can you do that to anybody? And she admitted that she was into it and all that. How can you do that? Unreal.
Frédéric Zalac: You got her to admit, though?
Marcel Deschamps: Yeah I did. That’s the only good thing that came out of that. I got a ten minute. I got her to admit to what she has done. I guess I press the right buttons to make her think that she wonthe upper deck, but. I really appreciate what you guys are doing in finding out who are the scammers out there.
In reality, Mary Roberts is a professional scammer and works at a fraudulent call center in Tbilisi. She carefully covered her tracks, using a fake name, photos, and passport. However, we found her. For months, we have been investigating the internal correspondence leaked from the call center.
It turned out that the agents referred to themselves as “scammers,” meaning fraudsters. Despite strict warnings, they occasionally addressed each other by their real names in internal communications. They boasted about luxurious vacations, expensive jewelry, and branded clothing. They talked about their spouses and other personal details. Through analyzing all this and gathering details, we were able to uncover the true identity of Mary Roberts – she turned out to be Mariam Charchian. Her monthly salary often exceeded $20,000. Additionally, her sister, Veriko Charchian, works at the call center under the fake name Veronica Nowak.
We didn’t just find her – we also discovered the name of the fraudulent company, identified its founder, the call center agents, and their boss. The obtained documents reveal that the fraudulent call center has at least three offices in the center of Tbilisi: in Dighomi, on Shartava Street, and at 13 Kavtaridze Street, just 500 meters from the State Security Service building
The company behind this scheme is AK Group, where at least 85 people work. From May 2022 to February 2025, the fraudulent call center robbed over 6,100 people and generated $35.3 million in revenue. Despite this, there was almost no public information available about the company – the fraudsters carefully hid behind fake names, photos, and passports.
However, the photos taken at the New Year’s Eve party revealed their identities. We found photos taken by the AK group in 2023.
This is 36-year-old Mary Shotadze. According to the business registry, she is the director and sole owner of AK Group.
Leaked documents have revealed that Shotadze uses the fictitious name Ksenia Koen. She leads a group of scammers whom she calls “Top Agents.”
She demands a minimum daily income of $30,000 from the agents.
Meri Shotadze: “By the end of the month, we need to process 30K per day. Until we hit 30K daily, know that I’m not leaving the office. There are 7 top-tier sales agents sitting on this task—30K per day should be no issue for you. Let’s not repeat the same conversation over and over again. Push your clients and bring in those upsells. Get up, push your clients, and get the money flowing. Otherwise, I’ll have to escalate things.”
“Studio Monitor” has repeatedly recorded Mary Shotadze’s car at 13 Kavtaradze Street, near the fraudulent call center.
The license plate of the top scam leader’s car features her fake name – “Coen.”
For years, Mary Shotadze lived in Khimki, near Moscow. According to social media, she had a modest lifestyle, unlike today.
Now, agents refer to Shotadze as the “Queen.” She herself uses a “crown” symbol on Telegram and flaunts an $18,000 Rolex watch in her photo.
The real boss of the fraudulent call center hides behind Mary Shotadze’s name. He does not appear in the company’s documents, but leaked data from the call center have exposed him as well.
The person whom not only the scammers but even Mary Shotadze calls “the boss” is 33-year-old Akaki Kevkhishvili. Social media reveals that he finished school in Baku.
According to the photo, uploaded on Instagram by Akaki Kevkhishvili, an eight point star tattoo, associated with thieves in law, can be seen on his knees. In photos posted on social media years ago, he also expressed an affinity for firearms.
The boss of the fraudulent call center officially owns only a 300 sq. m plot of land in Zestafoni and a parking space in Didi Dighomi. In reality, he lives in the same building with his family.
One of the properties is an apartment in a newly built building. The private house, along with a plot of land, is located in an expensive neighborhood near Aghmashenebeli Highway. She paid 1,825,549 GEL for the 607 sq. m land and the 433 sq. m house.
A luxury Volvo is registered under the name of Akaki Kevkhishvili’s wife. During our investigation, the head of the fraudulent call center also purchased a new vehicle— a Range Rover Autobiography. The price of this car starts at 365,000 GEL and exceeds 1 million GEL.
According to the internal financial documents of the call center, Akaki Kevkhishvili constantly withdraws cash from the fraudulent company’s account. Between February and May 2024 alone, he withdrew at least $130,000 in cash.
Studio Monitor wanted to ask questions to Akaki Kevkhishvili. AK Group’s boss arrived home at 3 AM with his personal security. Upon seeing the journalists, Akaki Kevkhishvili ran away from the questions
Journalist: Mr. Akaki we’re journalists, we wanted to ask you questions about AK Group…
This is Manuchar Getia, the personal bodyguard of Akaki Kevkhishvili. We also found information about him in the leaked documents. Getia, who refers to himself as a police officer, according to the photos published on social media, is a former employee of a law enforcement agency.
The leaked documents from the call center show that Akaki Kevkhishvili urges agents to apply more aggressive pressure on clients in order to extort the maximum amount of money from them.
Akaki Kevkhishvili: If it takes you all day to be on a call for this you have to do this.
Lana Lehmans: I will fix that and also that client “started to move” in a clean fashion. Everything is gonna be ok. I will make their mothers cry. I promise.
Akaki Kevkhishvili: Take all of those clients under your personal control. You have 4 clients with really big opportunities. These 4 clients are your only job right here now. Trust me. You should be 80% occupied with these 4 clients and make agents do everything that you think is necessary for these 4 clients.
Lana Lemans: Yes, Boss.
Akaki Kevkhishvili: Dont f*ck up transactions in such a banal fashion, please. And, turn off your emotions totally, it abstracts you. Also, turn your excitement off when you are listening to a call.
We also discovered the identity of Lana Lemans. She is 26-year-old Lana Vakhtangadze, one of the leading scammers. Through deception, she earned more than $35,000 from clients in July 2023 alone. In January 2024, she received $28,550. A few months later, she held an extravagant wedding at the wellness resort Bioli in Kojori. The scammer arrived at the wedding by helicopter, which sparked a lot of attention on social media — ‘Whose wedding is this millionaire’s?’ people asked.
The leaked documents from the fraudulent call center show that top agents can even earn more than $20,000 a month. Scammers compete with each other for prizes set by the company, such as BMWs and iPhones.
Internal communications of the scammers show how they sometimes wait the whole night for money transfers from clients
Scammer 1: I stayed up all night last night too. When the Canadians..
Scammer 2: Why were you up late?
Scammer 1: I was waiting for the money to be transferred. I left around 4. 55 thousand dollars.
How they use clients’ personal information for their benefit.
Scammer 1: I stole money from him (in an offensive language)
Scammer 2: He says his wife is divorcing him and the bank will sell the house.
Scammer 1: Just as he cries, it’s probably not that hard for him.
Scammer 3: Get the wife’s number, let’s scam that bitch
Oksana, a Ukrainian woman who fled her homeland to Germany due to Russian aggression, became a victim of the AK group’s scammers. She had already been scammed once by a fraudulent call center agent. The second agent called her while she was mourning her brother, who had died in the war.
Scammer: Hello Oksana, this is Leonid from Admiral. You used to work with us, and it’s been a while since you’ve been in touch. I’m curious, what is the reason?
Oksana: Because my accounts were blocked, they took all my money.
Scammer: Your money has not been taken by anyone, it is with you. You just entered the wrong password for your account, which is why it got blocked. Tell me, how can I assist you?
Oksana: How will you help me? My brother was killed in the war, how will you help me?
Scammer: What do you mean, please explain?
Oksana: A soldier died in the war.
Scammer: What are you saying, my condolences, that’s very bad. Please tell me, how can I contact you? Do you have a Telegram so I can message you?
Among the victims of Georgian scammers were also Swedish citizens. 68-year-old Annika is a pensioner. She needed money for expensive dental services. She saw an attractive advertisement on Facebook that promised easy money. This is how she fell into the scammers’ trap. A Georgian scammer called her, introducing himself as Antony Adams.
After Antony Adams extorted 65,000 Swedish krona from Annika, her entire savings, he also took an additional 100,000 Swedish krona as a loan from the bank.
Annika Gustafson: He told me that if I added this amount, my Bitcoin total would be three times greater. In a few days, I would receive an incredible profit. I wasn’t interested in making a huge profit—I only needed dental treatment. But I thought, well, if I receive this money, I can help my friends who are also poor. When I realized that he was not my friend at all and only wanted to rob me, it was hard to describe— I was desperate. I felt like a fool, deceived, ashamed. I’m 68 years old, I used to be a journalist—how could I be so foolish?
Annika arrived in Tbilisi with journalists from the Swedish public broadcaster. She wrote a letter to the scammer who robbed her.
Annika reading the letter: Dear Tony, I’m writing to you—Anika from northern Sweden. A year ago, you helped me lose all my savings and take out a loan of 100,000 Swedish kronor from the bank. Since then, I have been miserable. I completely shut myself off, not wanting to tell anyone how I was deceived…
Journalists found out where you work and decided to expose you.
You are an expert in deceiving people. Does that make you happy? Do you sleep well at night? When you wake up, are you proud of yourself? I believe that one day, you will realize how many lives you have destroyed. Will you be able to die in peace, Tony? Anika, from the freezing north of Sweden…
Annika, along with the journalists, went to the fraudulent call center on Kavtaradze Street. The journalists were not allowed inside the building.
Studio Monitor’s camera recorded how a man followed the journalists who were leaving the office and took photos of their car. We found out that this is Levan Gogia, a security employee of the AK group, who was the head of the Special Task Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Zugdidi division until 2022. He was also present at the AK group’s New Year’s party.
After fraudulently stealing money from citizens of dozens of countries around the world, the A.K. group held an even more extravagant New Year’s party in 2024. The event was hosted by two renowned presenters, and the show featured cabaret dancers. At the end, the scammers were treated to an expensive cake decorated with the company’s logo.
We sent questions to the bosses and agents of the fraudulent call center AK group. None of them responded, and they deactivated their accounts on social media. The office located on Kavtaradze Street was shut down as well.
Marcel, the Canadian, had questions for Mary Roberts, also known as Mariam Charchian.
Marcel: Hello Mariam
Mariam Charchiani: Hello, who is this?
Marcel: Its Marcel, you dont remember me? You told me I could never find you, I could never reach you…
Mariam Charchiani: Yes, but can you remind me yourself please?
Marcel: Marcel, you dont remember me? You live in Tbilisi right, Georgia?
Mariam Charchiani: No
Marcel: Are you Mariam Charchiani or are you Mary Roberts? You stole money from me, we found you.
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