15 August 2024
A report by the Organized Crime Reporting Project (OCCRP) has alleged that Ekaterina Khvedelidze, the wife of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, possesses three undisclosed plots of land in Moscow, one bought as recently as this year.
The joint investigation by OCCRP, iStories, GMC, Studio Monitori, and iFact found that the three plots of land were recently purchased as an expansion to three other adjacent plots Ivanishvili’s family acquired prior to 2012. This included a house that was previously owned by Ivanishvili’s cousin, Ucha Mamatsashvili.
Ivanishvili last disclosed that he owned the three plots of land, and a house built on them, in 2013.
Ivanishvili, currently the honorary chair of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party, founded the party in 2011 and successfully unseated the United National Movement-led government the following year.
Upon entering politics as an opposition leader, he vowed to divest all his Russian assets due to concerns about his background in Russian business — a promise that has repeatedly been questioned. Ivanishvili was alleged to have sold his ‘last remaining business asset in Russia’ in September 2012.
The investigation published on 8 August suggests that Ivanishvili and his wife failed to disclose their reported purchase of the three land plots, one of which includes a house owned by his wife near Peredelkino, outside Moscow.
The joint investigation also indicated that the Ivanishvili family may own an additional 2.7 hectares of adjacent ‘recreational’ land just north of the plots, which is formally registered to the Russian company Aqua Space, an offshore entity based in the British Virgin Islands, which Transparency International reported was owned by Ivanishvili.
The investigation also suggested that the first house which Ivanishvili disclosed in 2013 was currently being rented out, and that Aqua Space was responsible for collecting its rent, which was then transferred to Khvedelidze through the Western-sanctioned VTB, a Russian bank.
The report claims that the payments amounted to approximately $94,000 since 2023.
Ivanishvili's ownership of ‘at least one’ Russian company, Aqua Space, through offshore entities was first revealed in 2022, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine. This disclosure heightened public concern in Georgia over Ivanishvili’s ties to Russia, particularly in light of what some perceived as the Georgian government’s anti-Ukrainian, or even pro-Russian, rhetoric.
The report estimated all these assets at a minimum of $14.7 million.
Ivanishvili and his family have yet to comment on the investigation. However, Georgian Dream has since issued two statements denying the claims.
In their initial response, delivered by spokesperson Giorgi Grdzelishvili in a Facebook post on 9 August, Georgian Dream asserted that Ivanishvili had not purchased any property in Russia since 1998 and that in 2013, Ivanishvili had duly declared his wife's ownership of a house and three land plots in Moscow. While lambasting the OCCRP for their allegedly poor reporting, the statement, as well its follow-up published today, did not address its claim about a second home and the plots acquired since 2000, adjacent lands, and the rental income.
