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Last year, we reported on digital fraudsters who were robbing European pensioners from Georgia. Now we turn to Russian citizens who have entrenched themselves in the construction business and are deceiving Georgians out of money gathered to buy or build homes. Some victims are planning to file complaints with the prosecutor's office; others have lost faith in the Georgian justice system and consider the money they paid gone forever.

გადაიხდი სიმართლისთვის? ეს გამოძიება დააფინანსეს “აი, ფაქტის” მხარდამჭერებმა - მოქალაქეებმა, რომლებიც მიიჩნევენ, რომ ჟურნალისტიკა თან ვერ ემსახურება ხელისუფლებას და თან ვერ აკონტროლებს მას. გახდი ჩვენი დამოუკიდებლობის მცველი.

მხარდაჭერა

"We were in such a hurry - we thought we'd move into the new house with our child - and in all that rush and carelessness, we ended up in this situation," says Mariam Chartolani. She is one of the victims who paid $25,000 hoping to build a home, and received in return only a half-dug plot of land.

"This is no longer just about the money… It destroys you morally, it ruins your psyche… I don't want anyone else to end up in the same situation. A person like this should not be allowed to create the same problems for others," she adds.

Mariam's story is one of four cases investigated by iFact that illustrate how the 'construction' network operates - deceiving clients, taking their money, and never delivering the promised property. iFact exposed this scheme after a nine-month investigation. In many cases, the organized group's methods were identical: attractive offers, vague contracts, and work that was effectively never completed - costing victims tens of thousands of dollars.

How Construction Became Psychological Terror

Mariam now lives in Mestia with her husband and child. "We have a plot of land in Mestia, Kakheti, and we wanted to build a house there. I was pregnant, we didn't have the time or resources to find workers separately. We needed a company that would handle everything," she recalls.

Companies kept refusing to work in Svaneti. In the spring of 2025, the couple found the Instagram account of the company "Monolith Batumi." The first call was answered by Tatiana Khachaturova, who passed their case on to Vakhtang Tutarauli. After the very first phone call, Tutarauli arrived in Svaneti with a ready-made contract. By that point, the family already had a topographic plan of the plot.

"That very day, he was asking us to sign the contract. When we said it couldn't happen that day, he took it as an insult: 'I came all the way from Batumi in one day for you and you won't sign?'" Mariam recalls.

Besides his behavior, the couple found several clauses in the contract suspicious - for example, that the document did not include the plot's cadastral code. Nevertheless, they eventually signed it at a café in Tbilisi and wired Vakhtang Tutarauli $5,000 as the first payment. Shortly after signing, the couple went abroad.

In total, the couple was supposed to pay $54,000 for the construction - covering the building work, roofing, and bringing the house to the white-frame stage, meaning without windows and doors.

According to the contract, payments were to be made in installments based on progress - for example, first $5,000 for preparatory work, then $11,000 before the foundation was installed, then $12,000 each for the monolithic framework of the first and second floors, and so on. However, as Mariam Chartolani explains, Tutarauli would also demand additional payments - sometimes for balconies, sometimes for thermal insulation. At the same time, he would reproach them: "Do you want to build a house at my expense."

According to Mariam, the pressure became almost daily. "For the first two weeks, he called my husband every day saying - 'You need to transfer me $10,000 now, I have to bring materials to Svaneti, prices are going up and snow is coming soon.' He called so relentlessly and wore us down psychologically. In the end we would say - 'Let's just get it done and transfer it.'"

When Mariam's husband requested invoices for the completed work, Tutarauli shot back: "That's none of your business. You might as well ask me how much I pay the workers and how much I spend on nails." The pressure also continued in writing: "If you don't transfer the money, I am halting the construction."

In total, Mariam and her husband transferred $25,000 to Tutarauli. When they returned to Georgia, they discovered that construction on their house had barely begun. The couple couldn't find a trace of any construction materials in Mestia.

So far, Tutarauli has returned only around $8,000 to Chartolani's husband.

Who Stands Behind Tutarauli?

What the victims initially considered their own mistakes and bad luck turned out to be a carefully laid trap. Every victim who spoke with iFact named the same key figures behind the scheme: Vakhtang Tutarauli, Artem Khachaturov, Tatiana Khachaturova, and Artem Korsun.

The accounts of the scheme's participants hold at least $129,000 transferred by victims - and that figure covers only the four people whose stories are told in this article. The total damage could be far greater, given that more than 20 people have complained about these fraudsters in a closed Facebook group.

The Khachaturovs' suspicious activities are widely discussed in Russian-language media and Telegram groups. It also emerged that this 'profitable business' was first started in Russia, before moving to Georgia.

Vakhtang Tutarauli’s name is connected to four Russian companies that operated in the food industry (LLC "Atmosfera Gostepriimstva," "VTG," "Delta Food," and "Samato"). All four have since been liquidated by Russia's Federal Tax Service.

According to Spark documents, these companies displayed all the hallmarks of shell companies: they submitted unreliable data to the legal entity registry, evaded taxes, and used fictitious legal addresses shared by dozens of other inactive companies. One of Tutarauli's companies' official email addresses was also used by 947 other companies.

According to Sherlock Report [a data analysis platform aggregating information from more than 50 open sources] Tutarauli appears in a 2010 Russian criminal case, where he was charged with obtaining others' funds through deception.

In the past decade alone, his company "Samato" has had 13 completed court disputes. In the majority of cases, systematic failure to fulfill contractual obligations was confirmed. However, at the enforcement stage, victims were unable to recover the money, because, according to Spark, the company had no recorded assets.

Confidentiality as a Weapon

Another victim of the fraudulent scheme asked us not to disclose his identity. Therefore, we will refer to him by a pseudonym, Levan Melikidze.

Levan is a 53-year-old artist who lived for years in Israel and the United States before settling in Georgia after the pandemic. In 2024, he decided to build a small house in Svaneti, specifically in Mestia. But organizing the construction proved difficult - companies kept refusing to work in Svaneti. Eventually, Levan found the company "Nash Dom" (Our Home) on social media, contacted them via WhatsApp, and that is how he met Vakhtang Tutarauli. Their first meeting took place in Batumi.

"[Tutarauli] arrived in a black Mercedes, he was very cheerful and showered me with compliments - how good I looked for 52, and so on. Then he took me to Gonio, where he showed me a large-scale hotel construction and said it was his project. The building looked impressive," Levan recalls.

He was in a hurry to build the house. In the construction contract, which he soon signed, two clauses struck him as suspicious: the client was not permitted to speak directly with the construction crew, and the contract was to remain confidential - it was forbidden to show it to third parties.

"On the fourth day after signing, I transferred the first payment to the account of 'Monolith Batumi.' I checked the company's identifier - everything looked in order. Later I transferred another $7,000 to them, because Vakhtang insisted that materials were getting more expensive and he needed to purchase special materials," the victim recalls. He transferred a total of $12,000 to 'Monolith Batumi'.

After that, Levan met Tutarauli twice: once in Svaneti for topographic surveying, and once when a bulldozer leveled the construction site. After that, nothing was done on the plot. While trying to understand the inaction, Levan came across Tutarauli's Instagram account:

"I saw a new drone bought for 3,600 lari… at the same time that I was sending him money so that he would do the work… He was posting photos of paragliding and trips - to Sochi, Tula, Turkey," Levan recalls.

He eventually terminated the contract and gave the "builder" 14 days to take some action to resolve the conflict. In response, he received a document listing reduced expenses totaling $10,000 - a price that seemed absurd, since construction had not even started.

When it became clear that construction would not resume, Tutarauli changed his approach: "He spoke to me rudely - 'What did you expect, that I'd build you a flower-painted house at a low price?'" says Levan.

"I blamed myself, I even started doubting myself - maybe I made a mistake, I became psychologically exhausted…" he adds.

In November 2024, Levan filed a complaint with the police. As he explains, after multiple police requests, Tutarauli gradually began returning the money - to date, a total of approximately $7,000. In addition, Tutarauli provided construction materials valued at roughly $4,000. In the end, Tutarauli still owes him about $1,000.

'Business Operations' in Georgia and the Impunity Syndrome

After damaging their reputation in Russia, the participants of the fraudulent scheme chose Georgia as their new target. Their trail in the Georgian business registry appears from 2019 onward.

The first to enter the Georgian market was Artem Khachaturov. In May 2025, Russian media reported that dozens of victims had filed complaints against him with law enforcement and that an international arrest warrant had been issued.

The story there is the same: Khachaturov promised to build houses for clients and fraudulently took their money. His wife, Tatiana Khachaturova, was also involved in the scheme. (Note: as both Artem and Tatiana stated in interviews with us, they are no longer married and refer to each other as former spouses.)

Artem Khachaturov founded two companies in Georgia: LLC "Construction Technologies" (in 2019) and LLC "Our Home" (in 2021). Both operate in construction, and he is the 100% owner and director of both. Tatiana Khachaturova assisted him in registering these companies.

Vakhtang Tutarauli soon also appeared in Georgian business. In 2022, he registered "Monolith Batumi" and in 2024, "Construction Technologies Batumi."

0:00/0:111×Vakhtang Tutarauali's image video from his Instagram

No real estate is registered in the names of any of the companies listed above or their owners - a significant obstacle for victims seeking compensation, as there are no assets to seize.

The connection between the Khachaturovs and Tutarauli is also confirmed by registry data: they listed the same address as the legal address for their respective companies - 4 Javakhishvili Street, Batumi. This property was at various times owned by Tatiana Khachaturova and then Viktoriia Nozhenko. Their official email addresses listed in official documents are identical as well.

Despite deceiving and harming numerous people, the participants of the fraudulent scheme continue to live freely. Their companies' pages remain active on social media, and new victims can still fall into their trap.

According to the latest information from victims, Tatiana Khachaturova lives in Batumi, Vakhtang was also in Batumi in March, while Artem Khachaturov is currently in Turkey.

iFact received confirmation from the press office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that an investigation into these individuals' activities has been launched under Article 180 of the Criminal Code, which covers fraud. However, we were not told when the investigation began, what stage it is currently at, or whether the persons named in our article have been questioned. These same questions were sent to the Prosecutor's Office, which declined to answer, citing personal data protection.

Artem Khachaturov, involved in the fraudulent scheme, periodically posts about his lavish lifestyle on social media - at times showing off a Rolex watch, at others a pair of Dolce & Gabbana shoes.

According to the Sherlock Report, Tutarauli owns expensive vehicles - including a Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes GLK. (Data as of February 27, 2026.)

How the Scheme's Participants Respond to the Allegations

Prior to publication, iFact contacted Tutarauli, Khachaturov, and Khachaturova and gave them an opportunity to state their positions. Three of them responded; Artem Kursun did not reply to our messages on WhatsApp or to the company email. As for Andrei Lukanin, we were unable to reach him due to a lack of contact information.

Our dialogue with Vakhtang Tutarauli went as follows:

Tutarauli: I'm... right now... [hesitates] I'm in a meeting and... I'll call you back...

Journalist: Will you be able to call back today?

Tutarauli: I will...

Journalist: Alright, I'll wait.

Tutarauli: Do you speak Russian?

Journalist: I prefer to speak in Georgian — you do speak Georgian, don't you?

Tutarauli: I do, but... it's a bit difficult...

Three hours later, Tutarauli wrote: "Thank you for contacting me. At this stage, I am not ready to provide a comment or interview regarding the matter mentioned. I ask for your understanding."

Vakhtang Tutarauali with the Russian flag. Source: personal Instagram

When we called Artem Khachaturov and began asking questions, he responded: "Why are you interested in these details - are you calling with provocative intent? If anyone [a victim] is interested, they have my number, they can call me themselves." He then persistently demanded to know the identities of our sources.

"…Such people probably don't even exist. Maybe they don't exist at all, or maybe they're some kind of provocateurs who perhaps didn't pay in full and that's why nothing was done for them - don't you think?"

We told him we had seen evidence and would send detailed questions with the relevant facts. He replied: "I have all the documents too[...] Why should I report to you? If someone thinks I owe them, let them call me. You have my number, you can give it to the person who thinks I owe them. I don't want to answer to third parties. I don't consider it necessary. I didn't take any money from you, a journalist, so what is the point of giving you an explanation?"

Khachaturov eventually hung up. We sent him detailed questions via WhatsApp. He responded that in Georgia he had fulfilled all contracts, closed and sold his office, separated from Tatiana, has no connection with Vakhtang, and is not responsible for his promises or debts. He added: "Do you want to pin Vakhtang's problems on me? Maybe you've just found a scapegoat?… I'm not Vakhtang and I'm not at all interested in what's happening around him. Leave me alone, please."

We also sent questions via WhatsApp to Tatiana Khachaturova. She stated that she held no official position at "Monolith Batumi" - she was not a manager, not a lawyer, and only provided technical assistance to Vakhtang, helping with correspondence and document preparation. She said she now works independently in real estate.

Regarding Artem Khachaturov, she said: "We are no longer married. During the marriage I may indeed have carried out his instructions, but I don't know what he's doing now." She added: "[Monolith Batumi's] actions were purely of an auxiliary nature and did not involve participation in management or decision-making. I had no connection to the signing of contracts, financial operations, or the company's monetary assets […] I consider statements about my connection to an organized group or illegal activities to be unfounded and contrary to reality."

Another Illusion of Credibility

Nino Gerzmava lives in Tbilisi. Her wish to build a house on her own land also made her a target of the fraudulent scheme. She contacted the company via social media and was quickly answered by a Russian-speaking person named Arthur.

"He told me they had a representative in Tbilisi who would explain the details - what materials would be used to build… And indeed this man came, Andrei Lukanin," the victim recalls. Lukanin presented a detailed plan, then took Nino and her family to an active construction site near Lisi Lake. "Workers were working there, he greeted them… and even gave them instructions himself… That was how we confirmed that [the construction] was actually going on, as planned," says Nino.

After negotiating the details, they signed a contract. "We didn't sign it with a notary, for a simple reason - payments were set to be made in stages and were linked to completed work…" Gerzmava recalls.

As Nino Gerzmava explains, after the first stage, some work was indeed carried out - digging the land, pouring the foundation, building the columns of the first floor - but then the constant calls and demands began: "Standard texts… 'If you don't trust me, how can I build you a house?'" Nino recalls.

The family continued making payments in small installments, but the scheme's organizers were expecting much larger sums. "I think they were waiting for a large lump sum from us so they could then stop and disappear. Because we were giving a little at a time, they kept doing some things," Nino says.

In total, Nino's family lost $30,000, which was transferred to Andrei Lukanin. After the transfer, Lukanin disappeared. They contacted Khachaturov and Tutarauli, but both deflected responsibility: "What do I have to do with it - you transferred everything to Andrei," replied Arthur.

Nino then reviewed the contract once more and discovered a manipulation: "It says the contract is with Tutaruli’s company, but the seal is from a different company."

In the end, real construction on Nino's plot never resumed, and the family had to continue building with their own funds.

Nino did not file a police report. "A friendly consultation told me that you won't recover the financial compensation, you won't get the money back. Whatever assets they have is all they're liable for. Everyone has fled. Lukanin is in Taiwan today - I'm keeping track of him," the victim says.

Today, Nino is convinced that the case is part of a unified scheme involving Tutarauli, Arthur, and Andrei. "They are experienced fraudsters… We also placed excessive trust in them," says Nino Gerzmava.

How the Scheme Works

Based on the testimonies of our sources and the documents gathered, it is clear that Tutaraulii and Khachaturov acted in coordination. The operational model of their companies can be summarized as follows:

Step 1: The scheme's participants post attractive advertisements on social media company pages and present themselves on personal profiles as experienced builders.

Step 2: Interested "customers" are spoken to either by the company's director or by someone posing as a lawyer. They are then introduced to an architect.

Step 3: To build trust, they first speak with clients by phone, then meet them in person and show them ongoing construction sites. They also have contracts in hand claiming they can build a house in six months, starting with the design and the documentation needed to obtain a construction permit.

Step 4: If customers hesitate or object to certain contract clauses, the fraudsters either change the clauses to appear accommodating, or verbally promise the changes can be made - while simultaneously rushing them to sign.

Step 5: The next step is collecting payments. Through psychological pressure and various pretexts, additional payments are demanded even from clients who were paying on schedule according to the contract.

Step 6: The "construction crew" either does minimal, token work at the site, or starts construction. According to our sources, these active sites were used to attract new clients.

Step 7: Once the "builders" have collected what they consider "enough" money from their victims, they halt the already-delayed "construction" entirely. When clients demand answers or a refund, group members point fingers at each other and shift responsibility - aided by the fact that one person signs the contract, another receives the money (into a company or personal account), and a third has fled the country.

The victim is left with a half-started construction project or an empty plot of land. Often they see little hope of a legal remedy - hindered both by distrust of law enforcement and by the scheme's carefully calculated structure.

Construction Begun Without a Permit

Elguja Marsagishvili was also a client of Tutarauli's "Monolith Batumi." He wanted to build a house in Tbilisi on his own land. "Monolith Batumi" was first to prepare a project for him and then begin construction. According to Elguja, Tutarauli was supposed to deliver a two-story house with a roof, plastered walls, and all utilities (electrical wiring, sewage, and plumbing) within six months.

Between July and December 2024, Elguja transferred $84,000 to the company's account. However, the house remains unfinished to this day, and Marsagishvili had to continue construction with his own funds.

"I first contacted Artem, who connected me with Tutarauli, saying 'he's my employee, I hired him'… and 'he'll answer for everything absolutely'… When I didn't want to transfer additional amounts to Vakhtang, Artem would step in and say 'I guarantee it, no problem, transfer it'… he would convince me, reassure me […] We went over everything with Vakhtang, agreed, signed the contract and started what was supposedly 'construction.' I transferred the money in advance, based on the contract - which was my mistake - and to this day it hasn't been completed… Now, unfortunately, I'm building it with my own money," says Marsagishvili.

The "Monolith Group" also failed to meet the construction deadlines in this case and began construction without a permit - as a result, the property owner was fined 8,000 lari. He paid an additional 840 lari for construction waste.

According to Marsagishvili, Tutarauli's company completed only the following: the two floors of the house (concrete work); interior wall plastering; and installation of a fence. Everything else - electrical, sewage and water systems; delivery of scaffolding to the site; and interior finishing work - was organized and paid for by the property owner himself.

Marsagishvili obtained the construction permit for his own property only in February 2026. Before that, the process was delayed by the architect brought in by Tutarauli, and he had to push persistently to speed things up.

"Problems started from the first month, when he brought in an incompetent architect. [The work] dragged on endlessly, with different people coming and going… Due to his own mistakes, I don't have a ground floor - the house sits on a slight slope," Elguja recalls, adding that Tutarauli managed the construction process mainly remotely.

"I have never heard of a house being built from a phone. I started to wonder - is this person even a builder? He doesn't know what a linear meter is, what a square meter is, or the difference between them. I discovered that later…"

According to Elguja, the relationship eventually became tense. The last time they were in contact was when Tutarauli wanted to show Elguja's completed property to a new prospective client:

"He called and asked if we could show your site to another customer - meaning he'd reeled in a new client. 'I'll bring them, show them the site, tell them I built it, and once I take the money from them, I'll give you $4,000 out of it.' But I no longer trust that person," says Elguja.

He has no faith in law enforcement. He believes he cannot pursue a fraud claim because some work was actually carried out. Nevertheless, he still intends to appeal to the Prosecutor's Office.

How Not to Fall into the Trap: Red Flags and Legal Safeguards

The stories of Mariam, Levan, Nino, and Elguja are not isolated incidents. They are a symptom of how vulnerable the system - and the consumer - can be when it comes to real estate and large sums of money. The fraudulent schemes used by the Khachaturovs and Tutarauli contain elements of psychological manipulation, and to avoid falling into such a trap, citizens need a solid understanding of legal matters.

To understand how to recognize the danger before handing over life savings to a smooth-talking builder arriving in a black Mercedes, iFact consulted a specialist.

As a lawyer specializing in real estate explains to us, purchasing or building a property is a complex and high-risk process that requires special attention and specific research. Lasha Mchedlidze is the CEO and founder of GLG LEGAL. He outlines the red flags that a buyer should pay particular attention to.

Price - "The moment we notice that real estate is being sold at an unusually low price, that should immediately signal to us that we need to conduct research. It means it has already been rejected several times, and we need to find out what the problem is."

Pressure to sign - Any pressure to rush a decision or sign quickly is a clear signal that something may be wrong.

Confidentiality clause - As the lawyer explains, confidentiality clauses are common practice, but they lose force once a dispute reaches court. If a party is unhappy and wishes to initiate litigation, this provision ceases to apply.

Advance payment - "Established practice is to pay in stages as construction progresses. Say the process is divided into 10 phases. The builder completes 10% of the work, we go and inspect the quality, and only then do we pay for that 10%. Paying the full amount upfront is a major risk."

Transferring money to personal accounts - This is a suspicious circumstance. If a company asks you to wire money to another individual, this must be explicitly and officially stipulated in the contract itself.

The lawyer also explains that clients often assume they are protected if they sign a contract before a notary. This is one of the most dangerous misconceptions. A notary only verifies the identity of the signatories - not whether the company has any ongoing or past court cases, or a clean track record.

Before signing any document, the company's history should be verified in public databases: whether it has any court disputes, whether its assets are frozen, and who the real owners are. For ordinary citizens, navigating this "legal jungle" is no easy task. The solution, therefore, is to hire a real estate lawyer.

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