An exposé of the $35 million scam operation that left a global trail of broken lives
In this EU Journalism award-winning investigation, journalists exposed a sophisticated fraudulent call centre operation nestled in the heart of Tbilisi, Georgia. Targeting primarily elderly and vulnerable individuals across Europe and the Americas, the centre robbed thousands of their life savings. Part of an international collaboration, the investigative film was produced by Tbilisi-based Studio Monitor.
The voices of the scammers are scripted to sound like your best friend, your financial savior, or a sophisticated global broker. They call themselves Esteban Fernandez, Lana Lehmans, or Antony Adams. They promise the moon: Bitcoin windfalls, quadrupled investments, and a life of luxury backed by deep-fake endorsements from Elon Musk and Justin Trudeau.
But behind the professional veneer and the friendly voices lies a brutal reality. They aren’t brokers in London or Toronto. Rather, they are part of AK Group, a network of fraudulent call centres operating in Tbilisi, Georgia – often just a stone’s throw away from government security buildings.
For Marcel Deschamps, a 60-year-old factory worker from Ontario, the nightmare began with a Facebook ad. Within five minutes of clicking, he was sucked into a vortex of psychological manipulation.
The film shows how the scammers used AnyDesk, a remote desktop app, to invade his computer under the guise of technical help. They watched his bank accounts in real-time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When Deschamps’s life savings were gone, a “recovery specialist” named Mary Roberts appeared to help him get his money back.
Mary Roberts was actually Mariam Charchiani, a professional scammer earning upwards of $20,000 a month. When Deschamps finally confronted her, the mask slipped. “Just go ahead and kill yourself,” she told him over the phone, laughing: “You will never find my real passport. You’re f..ing dumb.”
The queen and her hive
In a collaborative effort, journalists in Georgia, Sweden and Canada obtained and analysed hundreds of thousands of documents that stripped these fraudsters of their anonymity:
At the helm of the operation is the “queen,” 36-year-old Marry Shotadze. Agents refer to her as “queen”; she uses a “crown” symbol on social media. Demanding a $30,000 daily quota from her “Top Agents,” Shotadze flaunts $18,000 Rolexes and a life of luxury.
The shadow boss is Akaki Kevkhishvili, a 33-year-old with a penchant for Range Rovers. Records show him withdrawing hundreds of thousands in cash while urging agents to have no mercy for their clients. Personally, or through his family members, Kevkhishvili owns apartments, a private house and luxury vehicles.
The agents are mostly young people fluent in foreign languages [they should have worked for Translator instead]. Among them is 26-year-old Lana Vakhtangidze (alias Lana Lemans). According to the investigation, she sometimes earned more than $35,000 a month through fraud. In early 2025, Vakhtangidze threw a lavish wedding at a luxury resort, where she arrived at the ceremony by helicopter.
Security for the operation is provided by Levan Gogia, a former official with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, now providing security for people robbing pensioners across the globe.
A global trail of ruin
The scale of the devastation is staggering. Between 2022 and 2025, AK Group fleeced over 6,100 victims out of $35.3 million, according to the investigation.
The victims are diverse, but united by their vulnerability: Oksana, a Ukrainian refugee in Germany mourning a brother killed in the war; Annika Gustafson, a 68-year-old Swedish journalist who needed money for dental work.
While their victims were often left choosing between groceries and rent, the employees of AK Group lived in a parallel reality of unchecked excess. Internal records and social media posts reveal a culture where successful theft was celebrated with the fervor of a high-stakes victory.
Top agents flaunted a lifestyle of designer labels and luxury jewelry. The company’s 2024 New Year’s Eve gala (there’s a montage of photos from the event in the film) epitomized this decadence: held in a lavish venue with professional cabaret dancers and famous presenters, the scammers toasted to their $35 million haul. Best-performing agents were awarded BMWs and iPhones.
When journalists tracked down the shadow boss Kevkhishvili, he fled behind his private security. The centre’s office has since gone dark, and social media accounts have been scrubbed.
As part of the project, the journalists facilitated a confrontation between the victims and the fraudsters. Mariam Charchiani, reached by Deschamps on her real phone number, could only stammer denials before hanging up. Gustafson wrote a letter to the person who robbed her. But for victims like Deschamps and Gustafson, the scars remain. They haven’t just lost their life savings; they are mourning the loss of their trust in humanity.
Editor’s Note: Weeks after the investigation was published, police seized properties of AK Group, Rekhviashvili, Charchiani, Vakhtangidze and their family members. Pending investigation, police have refused to disclose further details
The investigative film was originally released online by Georgia’s Studio Monitor on March 15, 2025.
It is available on YouTube here. You can watch the video with automatically translated English subtitles.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, iFact, GMC, Swedish Public Broadcaster and Canadian Public Broadcaster and other organizations contributed to the investigation.
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