Former Business Partner Of Pro-Russian Party Leader Ivanishvili Detained In Georgia
- 27.05.2025, 13:49
He is accused of embezzling $40 million dollars worth of bitcoins.
Georgian authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of a former business partner of Georgia's most powerful man Bidzina Ivanishvili, who fled the country earlier this year amid a trial on charges of cryptocurrency embezzlement.
According to "European Pravda", the State Security Service (SSS) of Georgia informs.
The SSS said that on May 26 it received an "anonymous report" on the basis of which the ex-general director of Ivanishvili's Co-Investment Fund, businessman Georgii Bachiashvili, was detained. He was on the border with Azerbaijan, on the territory between the checkpoints "Red Bridge" and "Sadakhlo", in the neutral (green) zone.
In the beginning of March 2025, the former CEO of the Co-Investment Fund Bachiashvili left Georgia. According to a 2023 court ruling, Giorgi Bachiashvili was banned from leaving the country.
On March 10, 2025, the court sentenced him to 11 years in prison in the bitcoin case. At the time the decision was announced, Bachiashvili was no longer in Georgia.
The bitcoin criminal case against Ivanishvili's business partner was initiated in 2023. The investigation claimed that in the summer of 2015, the parties decided to invest in cryptocurrency mining, with Bachiashvili investing $1.3 million and Ivanishvili investing $5 million, and the profits were to be divided proportionally to their investments.
The prosecutor's office claims that in October 2017, the convict transferred only $537,000 to Ivanishvili, and the rest of the bitcoins worth $40 million - embezzled and "laundered" abroad.
In March this year, Bachiashvili was charged by the prosecutor's office with illegal border crossing. He is wanted. The court changed the businessman's preventive measure to imprisonment.
The Georgian branch of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International said that there is no sufficient evidence against Bachiashvili and that the case probably reflects Ivanishvili's financial interests.