Georgian Fund Manager Walks Free After $40M Bitcoin Heist
Giorgi Bachiashvili, a Georgian-Russian investment manager, has been released under a plea deal after embezzling nearly $40 million worth of Bitcoin from former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. In 2015, Bachiashvili's banking firm Cartu loaned him the cryptocurrency to launch a mining operation, but he used it for personal gain instead.
Bachiashvili fled Georgia in March 2024, but was arrested at the border with Azerbaijan shortly after. He had been sentenced to 11 years in absentia, which was later increased to 15 years due to his illegal flight. However, under the plea deal, he received a one-year suspended term and was ordered to pay a $19,000 fine.
The case drew attention partly because of Ivanishvili's outsized role in Georgian political life, and partly because of the scale of the alleged theft - one of the largest cryptocurrency embezzlement cases tied to a sitting political figure. Prosecutors also dropped charges against Bachiashvili's parents, who had been indicted for allegedly helping launder $3.5 million worth of Cartu's Bitcoin.