Vladimer Stepanian, a Georgian businessperson and head of Crystal Group, has been detained on charges of illegally constructing hotels in Bakuriani and earning unlawful income. Stepanian has previously donated money to the ruling Georgian Dream party.
The Finance Ministry’s investigative service announced Stepanian’s arrest on Saturday. On Monday, Tbilisi City Court placed him in pre-trial detention at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The investigation against Stepanian concerned five hotel-apartments, as well as a private cable car, ski slope, and a toboggan track, which, according to investigators, Stepanian built ‘arbitrarily, without the required permits’ in southern Georgia’s ski resort.
‘Revenue illegally obtained from the sale of the unlawfully constructed hotel-apartments amounted to several tens of millions of Georgian lari’, the investigative service said on Saturday.
‘At this stage, the investigation has established the legalisation of unlawful income totaling ₾700,000 [$260,000]’, the agency added.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, in order to launder the illegal income, Stepanian deposited part of the money into the bank account of Bakuriani Business Group, which is part of the Crystal Group. Investigators stated that he kept the rest in his personal accounts and subsequently acquired property for himself and his affiliates.
The state was well aware of Crystal Group’s work in Bakuriani for years. In February 2023, one of the company’s cable car lines was inspected by then-Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili — who was recently charged on money laundering charges — along with other officials.
In a government-published video from that time, Stepanian guides Gharibashvili and the others around the site, explaining its functions.
‘Mr Vladimer deserves our thanks. He has carried out a really great project’, Gharibashvili said in the video, after Stepanian confirmed to him that the project was implemented with private investment.
On Monday, the prosecutor behind the case, David Kapanadze, was asked by a journalist whether the illegally constructed buildings had been built in the interest of former high-ranking officials or government members, ‘including those who visited, took photos, and thanked Stepanian’. Kapandze said he could not name specific individuals, but added that the investigation also covers studying any past wrongdoing by anyone who had been interested in Stepanian’s illegal constructions.
If convicted, Stepanian could face up to 12 years in prison.
According to Transparency International (TI) Georgia’s party donations monitor, Stepanian has made several political donations in the past.
In 2012, he donated ₾2,500 ($930) to the United National Movement (UNM), which was then in its final months of power. In 2018, he contributed a much larger sum — ₾60,000 ($22,000) — to Salome Zourabichvili’s campaign for presidency. At the time, Zourabichvili was running with Georgian Dream.
Later, in 2021, Stepanian donated ₾50,000 ($19,000) directly to Georgian Dream.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
