Land fraud worth a million lari: In Georgia, 13 people accused of fraud with state land were indicted in four criminal cases of illegal appropriation of state land, the investigative service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia reported. According to the investigators, the defendants used forged documents and false information to register state lands as private property. The total area of illegal plots exceeds 11.9 thousand square meters, and is worth 1.025 million GEL. The biggest fraud, according to the investigators, took place in Tbilisi district in Galdani. Eight defendants registered state lands with an area of 2,000 square meters worth 733.8 thousand lari. All these lots have already been resold. Other events were also detected in Galdani, as well as in Espindza municipality in southern Georgia and in the Mtskheta-Matianti region. The researchers also reported that they prevented an attempt to exploit an additional 10.3 thousand square meters of state land worth more than 150 thousand lari. The charges are punishable by up to nine years in prison.