Previous article: TSQ Investment Group and the “Financial Pyramid”: Legal Qualification and a Victim's Real Options (1 September 2026) — how the scheme is qualified under Georgian law, and eight practical steps for anyone who paid in.
What changed in a week
On 5 September 2026 the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance opened an investigation into the TSQ Investment Group case. According to public reporting, the case was opened under Article 192(2) of the Criminal Code of Georgia — illegal entrepreneurial activity — and the opening was preceded by a referral from the National Bank of Georgia.
This is precisely the legal line the previous article singled out. At the same time, it is a beginning, not an ending: opening an investigation does not by itself confer victim status on anyone, and it does not return anyone's money.
What users are being offered now
After 4 September, once withdrawal requests on the platform became mass and — according to widely circulated reports — operations were suspended, an “official statement” was distributed in TSQ's name in three languages: Georgian, English and Russian. Its mechanics are as follows:
To receive compensation, the user must first pay 20% of their own balance into a different, specified account — on a new platform, using a registration invitation code. The example the message itself uses: on a balance of USD 1,000 the user transfers USD 200 and “immediately” receives USD 1,200. Documents and a screenshot of the transfer are additionally required. The message states that the offer is “valid for an indefinite period” and carries no trading-volume requirement.
The short answer: pay nothing.
Do not transfer the 20%, do not register on the new platform indicated, do not use the invitation code, and do not send anyone your identity documents. Under Georgian law there is no obligation of any kind under which a creditor (a victim) pays first in order to get their money back — neither in criminal proceedings nor in civil ones.
Why this is not compensation — the legal assessment
1. The logic runs backwards. Compensation means you receive money. Here, the condition for receiving it is a fresh payment — that is, handing more money to the very party you have a claim against.
2. This statement by the TSQ group is a self-standing criminal episode. Where a promise is incapable of performance from the outset and its purpose is to obtain new money, the conduct falls within Article 180 — obtaining property by deception with intent of unlawful appropriation. For anyone who has already paid, the offence is complete.
3. TSQ's statement is a classic model, not a novelty. In the final phase of a scheme's collapse, participants are as a rule asked for an additional “commission”, “tax”, “unblocking fee” or “verification payment”. The purpose is to extract as much as possible from the people who have already lost — and those people are the most motivated group there is. It is at exactly this stage that the largest secondary losses occur.
4. A new platform means a new financial trail, unknown to the investigation. Paying on a different domain, into a different account, with an invitation code, means the money moves onto a new channel that does not continue your documentary chain to the original scheme. In evidentiary terms this worsens your position rather than improving it — unless, of course, what you want to prove is an unbroken history of loss.
5. The demand for documents is a separate risk. Sending an ID card, a selfie or a bank statement to an unknown recipient means your personal data passes into someone else's control. Such a package is later used to open other accounts, loans or registrations — and to plan the third and subsequent phases of the fraud.
One detail that is genuinely useful. The message is itself evidence. It openly admits that operations were suspended and that user funds were “temporarily frozen”. Archive it in full — a screenshot showing the sender, the date and the links — and attach it to the material you submit to the investigative authority.
What to do instead
Record everything. Transfers, crypto-transaction hashes, screenshots of your account dashboard, correspondence with the recruiter — and this latest message too.
Report to the investigative authority. Article 100 of the Criminal Procedure Code obliges the investigator and the prosecutor to open an investigation upon receiving information about a crime; under Article 101(21) you are entitled to receive written confirmation that your report was filed. Ask for it.
Request recognition as a victim — under Article 56. The opening of an investigation does not do this automatically.
Raise the question of seizure. Article 151, including its paragraph 32, allows property to be seized in order to secure payment of compensation to the victim. This is the one genuinely effective route to recovery — and it depends on timing.
Watch the civil deadlines. A transaction concluded by deception may be challenged within one year of the moment you learned of it, under Article 84 of the Civil Code; a claim for damages runs for three years under Article 1008.
If you have already paid the 20%. That is a separate episode and must be recorded separately: state the exact date, the amount, the receiving account or wallet address, and the message on the strength of which you transferred. Pay nothing further — if a new “final” fee is demanded after the first payment, that is the same model continuing.
One more thing
So-called “fund recovery” services have also become active in recent days — accounts and pages that write to victims in direct messages and promise to “retrieve” their crypto in exchange for an advance payment. This too is a secondary layer of the same logic: the target group is precisely the list of people who have already been defrauded. If there is any theoretical chance of getting the money back, it exists through the investigative authority and the courts — not through a transfer into a private intermediary's account.
If you were involved in the scheme not only as an investor but as a recruiter or a “leader”, your legal position requires a separate assessment now that an investigation has been opened. In that case, consult a lawyer before making any public or legal statement.
Sources
“An investigation has been opened into the activity of TSQ's ‘investment platform’” — Radio Liberty, 5 September 2026
“An investigation has been opened into the ‘Henry pyramid’ case” — Netgazeti, 5 September 2026
“The Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance has opened an investigation into the TSQ Investment Group case” — Timer.ge, 5 September 2026
National Bank of Georgia — “Financial pyramid” and the register of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)
The “official statement” circulated in TSQ's name in Georgian, English and Russian — the text of the message as received by users, September 2026
Disclaimer: This article is a general analysis and not legal advice on a specific case. The authenticity of the “compensation” offer, whether it was distributed by TSQ Investment Group or a person associated with it, has not been independently verified; the article assesses the mechanics of the offer and its legal consequences for the recipient. The investigation launched by the Investigative Service of the Ministry of Finance does not mean that a person is found guilty — guilt is only established by a legally binding court verdict. If you have been affected, contact a lawyer for an individual strategy.
