The Court of Appeals has upheld the ruling of the Tbilisi City Court sentencing Giorgi Bachiashvili, jailed former head of Bidzina Ivanishvili`s [founder of the Georgian Dream] Co-Investment Fund, to 11 years in prison on charges of embezzling cryptocurrency and money laundering.
Bachiashvili, who was arrested in May, claims he was abducted abroad in an operation involving State Security Service chief Anri Okhanashvili. He fled Georgia in March, citing "credible information" that his life would be in danger if he were imprisoned.
The Tbilisi City Court sentenced Giorgi Bachiashvili to 11 years in prison in March 2025. The Prosecutor`s Office accuses the former head of the Co-Investment Fund of embezzling USD 39 million from Bidzina Ivanishvili. It alleges that in summer 2015, Bachiashvili invested in cryptocurrency mining, using funds personally mobilised and transferred by Ivanishvili, but failed to return the owed amount.