Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former head of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Co-Investment Fund who had been sentenced to 11 years in prison in the high-profile “Bitcoin case,” has been released under a plea agreement after admitting guilt and reimbursing damages, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office confirmed.
“He also fully cooperated with the investigation and compensated the damage, on the basis of which a plea agreement was concluded involving a suspended sentence and a fine,” the Prosecutor’s Office stated.
The Prosecutor’s Office did not specify the amount of damages Bachiashvili reimbursed.
According to Bachiashvili’s lawyer, Levan Makharashvili, Giorgi Bachiashvili received a one-year suspended sentence and a GEL 50,000 fine. Regarding the agreement with Bidzina Ivanishvili in the civil dispute, its terms remain confidential.
The lawyer also stated that all criminal prosecution against Bachiashvili and his parents has been dropped.
Bachiashvili had been found guilty by two court instances in the so-called “Bitcoin case,” according to which he embezzled a large sum of crypto currency from the founder of the Georgian Dream party, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, and laundered the proceeds. He had been sentenced to 11 years in prison on this charge.
On September 30, pre-trial detention was imposed as a preventive measure on Bachiashvili’s parents, Marina Ramazashvili and Aleksandre Bachiashvili, on charges of assisting their son in the legalization of “illegally obtained income.” They did not attend the hearing, as they were not in Georgia at the time.
Giorgi Bachiashvili, former head of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Co-Investment Fund, was found guilty by the Tbilisi City Court on March 10, 2025, in the cryptocurrency embezzlement case and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In this case, Bachiashvili was charged with embezzling a large sum of money and laundering illegal proceeds. The court found him guilty on both counts.
Bachiashvili is also charged in the Mtkvari HPP case. In both the Bitcoin and Mtkvari HPP cases, the complainant is Bidzina Ivanishvili.
In the Bitcoin case, the prosecution and Ivanishvili accused Bachiashvili of misappropriating a large amount of Bitcoin, valued at nearly $40 million. According to the charges, Bachiashvili had purchased the Bitcoin with investments made by Ivanishvili, but he didn’t share the profit with Ivanishvili. Bachiashvili, however, maintains that Ivanishvili had simply loaned him the money from his bank, which he returned, and that this was a loan rather than an investment — a claim supported by audio recordings of his phone conversations with Ivanishvili.
Shortly after the verdict, Ivanishvili, as the injured party, initiated a civil lawsuit against Bachiashvili. The Tbilisi City Court fast-tracked the case and ordered Bachiashvili to pay Bitcoin worth nearly $1 billion to Ivanishvili.
In the Mtkvari HPP case, Ivanishvili and the prosecution accused Bachiashvili of ignoring feasibility studies and failing to properly perform his duties as head of the Co-Investment Fund, resulting in the Mtkvari HPP — a project involving millions of dollars — still being unfinished. According to Bachiashvili and his lawyer, the statute of limitations has expired for this second charge. Levan Makharashvili stated that the disputed contract was signed in 2014 and the limitation period ended in 2020.
In a separate case of illegal border crossing, Bachiashvili had been sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He left the country in March 2025, but on May 27, the State Security Service announced his arrest. Bachiashvili claims that he was forcibly brought back to Georgia on Georgian Airways flight, on which the then-head of the State Security Service, Anri Okhanashvili, was also present. On July 11, he was reportedly beaten in Gldani prison.
Additionally, Bachiashvili’s parents — Marina Ramazashvili and Aleksandre Bachiashvili — were placed in pre-trial detention in absentia, as the prosecution accused them of helping their son launder illegally obtained income.
