What Is the Connection Between the Names of Queen Tamar and Jockey Club?( Part I)

Address: Tamarashvili Street # 13, Tbilisi
Historical age: more than 8 centuries
Legal owner: According to the ownership certificate # 949 issued on May 10 2002 and the extract from the Public Registry dated by February 2 2007 the owner is the Jockey Club Ltd…

That short and poor information is about Tbilisi State Hippodrome; in fact it is already former hippodrome notwithstanding the fact that it is historical place and area where many criminal accidents have happened.

History of the hippodrome: There is a historical record, supposedly written in 1200-1210 by Ioane Shavteli in his poem “Abdulmesiani”, where opening of the hippodrome in Saburtalo district is mentioned among most important events that happened during Queen Tamar’s governance.

Hippodrome of the Queen Tamar was stretched on much larger territory than the Tbilisi State Hippodrome in 21st century, it covered nearly whole Saburtalo district of Tbilisi. Toponymy “Saburtalo” also originated from the hippodrome because it means a place where horse-ball (old Georgian game) is played. There is no exact historical record to show how long the hippodrome continued existence since opening. Soil scientists claim that centuries later the area of the old hippodrome turned into a swamp and people could not play horse-ball there any longer.

In 1840 Tbilisi a new hippodrome was built in Didube district. We can see the trace of that hippodrome in Tsereteli Avenue-it is a building with riding hall. In 1954 the hippodrome was surrounded by densely populated district and it became necessary to build a new hippodrome. Suitable territory was selected between the Vere Valley and Delisi Settlement that is in Saburtalo district. Tamarashvili Street # 13 is the address of the area but in Soviet time it was in Guramishvili Street.

Modern, criminal history of the hippodrome (information for mood): It is a story of appropriating of dozen acres of state land and wasting several millions of lari from the state budget.

Main character of the story is “Jockey Club Ltd.”
In bit parts we will mention Tbilisi Main Architect, officials from the Urbanization City Service Department, employees of the Public Registry…

The history began with…

In 1998 Tbilisi State Hippodrome was stretched on 57 acres of land including the neighboring slope that was attached to the hippodrome in 1995. According to the cadastre data of 2004 the total space of the hippodrome was reduced to 62 acres.

First owners of the hippodrome appeared in 1998. Preparation for the ownership started long before in 1995. On November 14 1995 Cabinet Council of Georgian Republic enacted a resolution where “Union of the Tbilisi State Hippodrome and Kulari Horse-Breeding Farm” were allowed to lease the state property with the further guarantee on its purchase at the end of the lease-contract. The document was prepared by 1997 and on the same year the Georgian Ministry of Economics certified to insert the Tbilisi State Hippodrome on the list of privatization entities. The Ministry of Economics had the following position: personnel could lease only the buildings in the hippodrome as for the entire territory; it could be purchased after Georgian Parliament enacted the legislative protocol on the ownership of non-agricultural lands.

“Union of Tbilisi State Hippodrome and Kulari Horse Breeding Farm” subordinated to the Georgian Ministry of Agriculture. On 27 November 1997 the Ministry of Agriculture certified the privatization of the hippodrome based on the lease-purchase contract. Tribune for the audience, circuit, stables and open riding field must not be privatized. The privatization should be carried out through commercial tender. The condition for the tender was to preserve the profile of the hippodrome. Starting price of the entity was 708 thousand USD. The announcement was published in the newspaper “Mesakutre” (property owner) on December 26 1997. Interested people should have applied to the Ministry of State Property Management within 30 days. But until January 26 nobody applied to the Ministry.

It is strange because Union of the Tbilisi State Hippodrome and Kulari Horse-Breeding Farm first in 1995 than in 1997 had petitioned for the purchase of the state property that was registered on their union. But now the union refused to purchase the property they had leased for many years.

Lasha Jaiani, director of the “Jockey Club Ltd” sent the only application to the tender commission on January 26 1998. The application was enclosed by the receipt to prove that Lasha Jaiani had paid 94 146 lari, 10% of the starting price of hippodrome to the Tbilinvestbank” on January 25 1998.

 First Crime

The origin of the sum is ambiguous too: “Jockey Club Ltd” was founded four days before the tender was announced and was registered at the Saburtalo District Court on January 22 1998. State Tax Inspection registered the organization on the same day. The share capital of the Ltd was 4 thousand lari. Lasha Jaiani had 50 % of the property and another 50 % belonged to Zviad Kanchaveli. Before that Jaiani was the director-general of the Union of the Tbilisi State Hippodrome and Kulari Horse-breeding Farm (supposedly the union personnel followed his order and did not take part in the tender). On February 20 1997 privatization commission was set up in order to prepare all documents for privatization. 

On January 27-28 1998 tender commission held sessions. On February 4 the Ministry of State Property Management issued a decree where Jockey Club Ltd was announced as a winner of the tender.

On February 18 1998 Jockey Club and the Ministry of the State Property Management signed five-year-long lease contract; in parallel to it another ten-year-long rent contract was signed with the Jockey Club. The club rented tribune, toilet, brick stable, 4th, 5th and 6th stables, open riding field for breaking in the horse, irrigation aggregate.

The contract did not say anything about the riding circuit of the hippodrome. Jockey Club had to pay 710 thousand lari for the property it had leased for the purpose of further purchase. According to the contract the leaseholder was obliged to: maintain the profile of the entity; to invest at least 3, 5 million USD within five years, to build sport-fitness lounge and preserve 70 % of working places.

Consequently the following fact looks a bit suspicious: 94 146 lari (10% of the total price) was not transferred on the account of the Ministry of State Property Management even in March of 2000. The Ministry petitioned to the National Bank of Georgia to explain the situation and the latter replied that the operation department of the National Bank did not have any document that could prove Tbilinvestbank’s deposit of 10 %. The tax document # 9 that was introduced by Lasha Jaiani was not found despite implemented accounting operations and checked daily record books. Moreover, on April 27 2000 G. Jighauri, vice-president of the National Bank of Georgia wrote in his letter to the Georgian Ministry of State Property Management that Lasha Jaiani had never opened an account in the Tbilinvestbank. National Bank explained that “a physical person could not conduct money transfer without having opened an account at the bank.” There is a question: Was Jaiani’s receipt on deposit fraud or not? On December 11 2007 D. Amaghlobeli, interim president of the National Bank of Georgia explained in his letter that “in 1998 money transfers at commercial banks were regulated by the Money Transfer Regulations in Georgia  verified by the resolution of the president of the National Bank of Georgia on September 5 1996.

The National Bank reported “the receipt # 9 produced by Lasha Jaiani, director of the Jockey Club Ltd to the tender commission is not drawn up in accordance to the estimated rules.”

And still we have questions without answers: Why did it become necessary to produce fraudulent receipts to the tender commission? Why the money was transferred later on the account of the Ministry of State Property Management?

It is easy to answer these questions: if we consider the fact that Jockey Club Ltd was set up on November 22 1998 with share capital of 4 thousand lari it would have been really difficult for the Ltd to transfer 94 146 lari to the account of the Ministry three days before the tender deadline. There is a version that the board of the Jockey Club made a deal with Tbilinvestbank. It is not a strange that particularly that bank was selected for the deal. One fact causes another suspicion: soon after the receipt #9 was issued the liquidation of the bank was launched. On May 4 1999 the bank was deprived from the license issued by the National Bank. A new Ltd “Giorgi XXI” was established on the base of the Tbilinvestbank on May 2 2000. On April 22 2000 the letter sent by the Giorgi XXI Ltd (as a legal descendent organization of the Tbilinvestbank) to the Ministry of State Property Management attempted to explain the reasons for hindering the transfer of 10% to the account of the Ministry. “Several hours after Jaiani deposited the money at the bank, National Bank of Georgia blocked the accounts of the Tbilinvestbank because of some normative violations.”

“Giorgi XXI” lies. It is proved by the letter of the National Bank of Georgia sent to us. “In January of 1998 and ever since National Bank of Georgia has not implemented any restriction on the operation to receive the sum from correspondent accounts for the Tbilinvestbank.” The National Bank wrote in its letter that Saburtalo District Court had appointed Mamuka Eliashvili, a representative of the Tbilinvestbank, as a liquidator of the bank. That person was plenipotentiary representative of the bank till the end of the liquidation process. No other liquidator was appointed meanwhile.” And one more lie in the letter of “Giorgi XXI” to the Ministry of State Property Management (April 20 2000). The Ltd claimed that the National Bank had granted them with the authority to finish the liquidation of the Tbilinvestbank. However, on April 20 2000 when the letter was written, the Ltd was not registered as a legal entity yet. It was founded on May 2 2000. The history how Jockey Club paid the privatization deposit demonstrates how “honest” they are.