Billionaire opposition politician Bidzina Ivanishvili’s public movement, Georgian Dream, accused the state audit agency of “arbitrary and illegal” targeting of the movement by demanding to relinquish its GEL 1.1 million.

State audit agency, Chamber of Control, accused Georgian Dream of illegally obtaining GEL 1.1 million through striking a sham deal with its affiliated company with a purpose to evade restrictions set by law. The agency warned the movement to return money back to the private company in order to avoid sanctions set by the law, which may involve confiscation of GEL 1.1 million and fine possibly in ten-fold amount of the sum in question.

The movement said in a statement on January 26, that in order to avoid “illegal confiscation of property and disproportionally strict financial sanctions, we are forced to fulfill the Chamber of Control’s illegal demand.”

The movement, however, said that in next few days it would “resort to legal means” in order to try put an end to the Chamber of Control’s “arbitrary and illegal actions against us, which has already turned into usual practice.”