Giorgi Bachiashvili sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison
The Tbilisi City Court sentenced Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former personal financier of Bidzina Ivanishvili, in absentia to 11 years in prison on charges of embezzlement of cryptocurrency and legalization of illegal income. Two more cases against him remain pending, one of which is for illegal border crossing.
Last week, it became known that Bachiashvili had fled Georgia. Earlier, the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, billionaire Ivanishvili, accused his former financier of stealing bitcoins, the value of which reached $39 million. The trial in this case has been ongoing since 2023: at that time, the accused was banned from leaving the country, the bail amounted to 2.5 million lari.
Bachiashvili explained his successful escape across the border with Armenia by a corrupt system and mass protests that distract the security forces. The fugitive said that he was safe and had dirt on Bidzina Ivanishvili. First of all, according to him, the United States would find out about everything.
According to the investigation, Bachiashvili crossed the Georgian-Armenian border, "using a hiding place in the car", after which, already on the Armenian side, he presented a Russian passport. The prosecutor's office contacted Interpol to put Bachiashvili on the international wanted list.
In addition, the Tbilisi City Court sent Shota Karumidze, who, according to the investigation, helped Bachiashvili leave the country, to pretrial detention. It was established that the fugitive paid Karumidze 30 thousand dollars so that he would secretly transport him in a car through the Sadakhlo checkpoint on the Georgian border. The defendant himself admits guilt and cooperates with the investigation.
Today, Bidzina Ivanishvili ranks 399th in the rating of the American news agency Bloomberg, which includes 500 billionaires. The agency's analysts rated the well-being of the leader of the Georgian Dream at 1 out of 5 stars, implying that it is difficult to obtain reliable information about his income and wealth. According to Bloomberg, the oligarch's fortune is estimated at 7.8 billion US dollars. The source notes that it has reached a record level. At the end of last year, Bloomberg cited the figure of 7.55 billion. Thus, in just one and a half months of 2025, the founder of the ruling party of Georgia became richer by 300 million dollars.
