White-collar & financial crime

Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity

Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity in Georgia: Business-focused criminal defence for investigations involving companies, directors, accounting, transactions, tax, customs and restrained assets.

English legal guideTbilisi · Georgia-wide
Short answer

Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity in Georgia: Business-focused criminal defence for investigations involving companies, directors, accounting, transactions, tax, customs and restrained assets.

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Financial investigation

Follow authority, knowledge and the transaction—not titles

A licensing or registration issue must be separated from the specific criminal elements, scale and responsible person's knowledge.

Transaction question

What activity required authority, who actually conducted it, what licence existed and how is the statutory consequence calculated?

A flow-of-funds chart may show movement without proving beneficial ownership, criminal origin or what each participant knew.

Records that test the prosecution theory

Corporate and licence records, contracts, invoices, operating data, approvals, revenue analysis and regulator communications.

  1. AuthorityMap signatures, delegations, approvals and system access.
  2. EconomicsReconcile contracts, performance, accounting treatment and actual benefit.
  3. KnowledgeSeparate each person's information and decisions at the relevant time.
  4. Proceeds and restraintTest tracing, ownership, valuation and third-party interests.
Potential Criminal Code provisions

Articles that may enter the qualification

These provisions are orientation points, not a conclusion. An investigation may start under one article and later be narrowed, expanded or reclassified as facts, expert results, article parts, aggravating circumstances and procedural decisions develop.

Article 192

Illegal entrepreneurial activities

Requires separation of licensing or registration non-compliance from the criminal elements and thresholds in the current provision.

Read full Article 192 text on this page
Criminal Code text on this page

Read the relevant provisions before the external source

The operative English text below is reproduced from the official consolidated Criminal Code of Georgia, publication 296, accessed 9 August 2026. Formatting has been normalised for on-screen reading; the current Georgian-language consolidated text controls if wording or timing differs.

Article 192Illegal entrepreneurial activities

1. Carrying out illegal entrepreneurial activities without registration, permit or licence, or in violation of the permit or licence terms, which has resulted in substantial damage or which was accompanied by receipt of large income, –

shall be punished by a fine or house arrest for a term of six months to two years, or by imprisonment for a term of one to three years.

2. The same act committed:

a) jointly by more than one person;

b) repeatedly;

c) by a person convicted for this kind of offence, –

shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment for a term of three to five years. Note:

For the act specified in this article a legal person shall be punished by a fine, with deprivation of the right to carry out activities, or by liquidation and a fine.

Open Article 192 in the official consolidated Criminal Code
Defence work

How counsel turns the issue into a case plan

For illegal entrepreneurial activity, counsel can identify the operative procedure and decision-maker, test the prosecution theory against each legal element, obtain lawful defence material, frame expert or disclosure requests, preserve objections and prepare the next motion, hearing or cross-border step. Advice must be based on the actual record rather than the page title alone.

First controlled step

Stop ongoing exposure where appropriate and map actual operations to the rule rather than the company's label.

Questions clients ask about illegal entrepreneurial activity

Does Article 192 — Illegal entrepreneurial activities — automatically apply to Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity?+

For Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity, Article 192 may provide a starting point, but a page title is not a legal qualification. Investigators and prosecutors must match proved facts to every element, part and aggravating circumstance. The qualification may be narrowed, expanded or changed after expert results, new evidence, a defence motion, prosecutorial review or a court decision. Requires separation of licensing or registration non-compliance from the criminal elements and thresholds in the current provision.

Which factual boundary is decisive in a Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity case?+

In a Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity case, the evidence must distinguish criminal deceit or appropriation from commercial failure, accounting error and civil non-performance. That boundary is tested through the person's individual conduct, knowledge or intent, the legally classified consequence and every circumstance relied upon to move the allegation into a different article or aggravated part.

What evidence can prove—or undermine—the allegation of Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity?+

The focused record for Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity is not the same as for every offence. Priority material includes contracts, approvals, ledgers, bank records, tax files, devices and role-specific communications. The defence should test provenance, completeness, authorship, lawful collection, chain of custody and whether each item proves the disputed element rather than merely repeating the accusation.

Can the article or charge for Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity change after the investigation starts?+

Yes. For Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity, Article 192 may be a starting map, but expert results, quantity or value, injury classification, individual role, attempt or participation, a defence application, prosecutorial review or a court decision may support a different article, part or legal outcome.

What should be preserved immediately in a Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity matter?+

In a Illegal Entrepreneurial Activity matter, preserve the original chronology, procedural records and the topic-specific material before routine loss or alteration. Early advice is important because a poorly coordinated corporate response can create conflicts, overwrite data or blur individual roles; preservation must be lawful and must not involve hiding, changing or coordinating evidence.

Sources & legislation

Primary sources for this guide

Legislation can change and official English translations may lag the Georgian text. Check the current consolidated version and obtain advice before relying on a deadline, offence classification or remedy.

Criminal Procedure Code of GeorgiaOfficial consolidated Criminal Code — current text & PDFMinistry of Finance Investigation Service
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