On January 23, the Tbilisi City Court held the trial of Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former head of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s co-investment fund. During a court hearing, Bachiashvili alleged that Ivanishvili had sent a mediator to deliver a letter demanding monthly payments in cryptocurrency in exchange for the end of the criminal prosecution.
According to Bachiashvili, in the case of refusal, this amount would increase by 500 bitcoins per month. Giorgi Bachiashvili spoke about this with TV Pirveli after the end of the trial in the city court.
As of now, the value of 5,000 bitcoins equals to USD 511 million.
"Ivanishvili continues to extort money. This is extortion, when a person is asked to pay a large sum of money under the threat of criminal liability. He demanded me to pay 5,000 bitcoins in the fall of 2023 and if I refused to do this, the amount would increase by 500 bitcoins per month. Of course, I did not agree and would not agree, under any circumstances. [...] His representative sent this offer to my lawyer by phone," Bachiashvili said.
The charges against Giorgi Bachiashvili relate to actions taken in 2017. Specifically, according to the prosecutor's office, Bachiashvili gave only 536,900 USD to an investor in exchange for the total profit made from their investment, while unlawfully appropriating the remaining 8,986 bitcoins, which were worth up to 43 million USD at the time.
Giorgi Bachiashvili does not consider himself guilty of the charges.
The case against Bachiashvili involves charges of misappropriating a large amount of cryptocurrency and laundering illegal income, carrying a potential sentence of 9 to 12 years in prison.
