What this means in practice
Corporate exposure is not identical to director or employee exposure. The response should identify the investigating authority, procedural powers used, individuals at risk and the legal basis for each seizure, interview or restraint.
Start with a protected chronology, an evidence-custody map and a conflict assessment. Preserve accounting, messaging, access-control and board materials in their original form; then coordinate any production with Georgian procedure, data-protection duties and the company’s continuing operational needs.
Questions to answer first
Separate company, director, employee and shareholder interests
Map transactions and documents before drawing legal conclusions
Distinguish commercial, tax and regulatory issues from alleged crime
Coordinate defence with accounting and operational advisers
Evidence that may matter
- Corporate governance and approvals
- Contracts, accounting and tax files
- Email, messaging and device data
- Employee and third-party interviews
- Audit and compliance material
Separate the company’s exposure from each individual position
Connection to the legal person
The inquiry must identify whether a responsible person acted on behalf of, through or in favour of the legal person. The Code also addresses failures of supervision or monitoring that enable a subordinate to commit an offence for the legal person’s benefit.
Liability is offence-specific
A legal person is criminally liable only where the relevant Criminal Code provision permits it. The analysis must therefore match the alleged offence, applicable article part and corporate-liability clause rather than assume that every employee allegation transfers to the company.
Corporate consequences require their own assessment
Potential sanctions include a fine, restriction of activities, liquidation and confiscation, subject to the statutory conditions. Individual and corporate liability are separate, and civil, regulatory or compensation exposure may continue alongside the criminal case.
Build one controlled record before interviews or production
A corporate response should identify the legal entity, business unit, relevant period, transaction owners, approval chain, data custodians and every authority already involved. The file should distinguish original records from working copies, record collection methods and preserve access logs, metadata and chain of custody.
Before an internal interview, determine who the lawyer represents, whether the company and individual interests may diverge, what status the person has in the external case and how the interview will be documented. A shared commercial interest does not remove a conflict between the company, directors, employees, shareholders or related entities.
Respond to a search, seizure or production demand by document and scope
Obtain the warrant, ruling, request, inventory or other formal record and compare the authority, premises, data range, devices, accounts and period covered. Preserve objections and confidentiality claims through lawful procedure, keep an accurate duplicate record of material taken or produced and maintain business continuity without altering or withholding evidence.
How the process may develop
Primary sources for this guide
Before acting, compare this guide with the current Georgian text and the exact document served in the case. The official English translation may not include the latest amendment.
Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia↗︎Criminal Code of Georgia↗︎Constitution of Georgia↗︎