Lucy Papachristou
TBILISI, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A former aide to Georgia’s most powerful man was released from prison on Wednesday after serving more than 15 years in prison for embezzling his former boss’s cryptocurrency, Georgian media said, citing his lawyer.
Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has previously dismissed the charges as politically motivated, fled the country last year while on trial for defrauding billionaire former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely seen as Georgia’s de facto leader. He was later brought back to Georgia and jailed after being convicted in absentia.
The prosecutor’s office said Bakiashvili has now fully pleaded guilty. Under the plea agreement, his sentence was reduced to one year of probation and he was fined 50,000 lari ($18,900). Reuters could not immediately reach his lawyer, Levan Makharashvili, for comment.
Ivanishvili is seen as controlling the ruling Georgian Dream party he founded and has steered traditionally pro-Western Georgia in a more pro-Russian direction since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine while suppressing domestic opposition.
Bachiashvili, who once headed Ivanishvili’s investment fund, is accused of misappropriating about $39 million worth of Bitcoin as part of a 2015 loan from Ivanishvili’s Cartu Bank, which prosecutors said he intended to use to launch a cryptocurrency mining operation.
Transparency International Georgia said there was a lack of evidence against Bakishvili and that the case appeared to reflect Ivanishvili’s financial interests.
In March 2025, during his trial, the former aide fled Georgia, crossing overland into Armenia and then to a third country.
Less than three months later, Georgian authorities said they arrested Bakiashvili near the country’s southern border with Armenia and Azerbaijan, brought him back to Tbilisi and later sentenced him to an additional 4-1/2 years in prison for illegal border crossing.
One of his lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, said his client was “forcibly” deported and risked torture.
On Wednesday, prosecutors also dropped previous charges against Bachiashvili’s elderly parents for helping him launder approximately $3.5 million in cryptocurrency.
(1 USD = 2.6470 lari)
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Ross Russell)
