Transparency International (TI) Georgia has released a report highlighting that the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has been the primary benefactor of the pro-government media outlet Imedi since 2018. TI Georgia also found that Imedi’s debts to companies linked to Ivanishvili had reached ₾165 million ($61 million).
TI Georgia presented its findings on Wednesday as a follow-up to an article written by Dutch investigative platform Follow the Money in early September. The platform found that Imedi, which serves as Georgian Dream’s main propaganda channel, is financed by Ivanishvili.
In their statement, TI Georgia said that Imedi has, since 2018, been financed through preferential loans, with Ivanishvili and Irakli Rukhadze, Imedi’s owner, being its main financiers.
TI Georgia additionally found that Imedi was operating at a loss, claiming that at the end of 2023, it had accumulated losses of ₾388 million ($144 million). The organisation has not shed light on Imedi’s finances past that year.
According to TI Georgia, Teleimedi, the company operating the channel, is owned by the Georgian Media Production Group, which itself is owned by the Finance Group, a company registered in the Netherlands whose ultimate owners are Rukhadze, Benjamin Albert Marson, and Igor Alekseev. The three took control of Imedi as Hunnewell Partners in 2018, completing the purchase of the channel in 2021.
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Conducting an analysis of financial statements published by Imedi, TI Georgia found that Teleimedi was financed by JSC Cartu Bank, its parent company the Cartu Group, and Wenigen Management Limited.
According to public records, Ivanishvili’s oldest son Uta Ivanishvili owns 35% of the shares of the Cartu Group, with the remaining shares held by ‘other individuals, none of whom own 5% or more’.
Previous reporting separately found that the offshore company Wenigen Management Limited was associated with Ivanishvili, through which he owned and managed assets in Russia.
A fourth company listed as a key creditor by Teleimedi, Amber LLC, has, according to financial statements, also been financing Imedi since 2018. Teleimedi lists Amber as a company related to the owners of the TV and members of Teleimedi.
Researching companies registered in Georgia prior to 2018, TI Georgia has suggested that Amber LLC, which was registered on 17 October 2018, could be the same Amber LLC listed as being a key creditor of Teleimedi. TI Georgia also found that this Amber LLC was entirely owned by Iakob Gogoladze, who seems to have a connection to the Cartu Bank, having played for their team in the Futsal Grand League.
TI Georgia additionally found that Cartu Group had issued a loan of ₾2.8 million ($1 million) to Amber LLC a day after the company’s creation, on 18 October 2018. That same year, as well as in 2019, Teleimedi received a loan of approximately the same amount as that loaned to Amber LLC from Cartu Group.
‘This scheme raises suspicions that Amber LLC is actually a company related to Bidzina Ivanishvili through which he is able to funnel even more funds towards Imedi TV than what is visible through the three companies listed above’, TI Georgia wrote in their statement.
‘If true, this would mean that in 2022 Bidzina Ivanishvili funded 56%, or more than half, of Imedi TV’s loans.’
Mikheil Gvadzabia
