Georgian authorities freeze accounts of imprisoned former Ivanishvili ally Bachiashvili’s parents
Georgian authorities have frozen the bank accounts of the parents of Giorgi Bachiashvili, a former ally of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, alleging that their assets included property embezzled from Ivanishvili.
The assets were reportedly frozen as part of an embezzlement case in which Ivanishvili and his former aide are embroiled. Bachiaschili is currently serving an 11-year sentence after being found guilty of illegally embezzling ₿8,253.13 — worth around $40 million at the time of the case’s launch in 2023 — from Ivanishvili.
Bachiashvili denies the charges, claiming the case was politically motivated and linked to his fallout with Ivanishvili.
The Prosecutor General’s Office froze the bank accounts of Bachiashvili’s parents on 13 September, claiming that their accounts included assets acquired by their son ‘during and after the commission of the crime’.
‘The convicted person, personally and through related individuals or business entities, purchased, owned, and transferred various assets, thereby laundering the illegally appropriated cryptocurrency and the particularly large amounts of money obtained as a result of its disposal’, the agency said.
According to Publika, Georgian Dream adopted a legislative package on 3 September simplifying the authorities’ confiscation of assets to compensate for legal damages. The package covers assets, including property, owned by the convicted persons or their close relatives.
Bachiashvili is also on trial for a case launched in 2025, involving accusations leveled against him for failing to or improperly fulfilling his official duties as the former head of the Co-Investment Fund.
In addition, Bachiashvili is also on trial for illegally crossing Georgia’s borders after he secretly escaped the country in March 2025.
He was detained in late May, with the State Security Service (SSG) claiming that he was found near the Georgia–Armenia border. Bachiashvili claims that he was abducted while abroad, blindfolded, placed on a Georgian Airways flight, and forcibly brought back to Georgia on the orders of Ivanishvili.
Tbilisi Mayor and Georgian Dream’s Executive Secretary Kakha Kaladze all but confirmed the version of Bachiashvili’s forced return while speaking to journalists in mid-August, saying that he was ‘brought in from a foreign country’, but claiming that it was not an ‘abduction’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
