Georgian Fund Manager Walks Free After Embezzling $40M in Bitcoin

Giorgi Bachiashvili, a Georgian-Russian investment manager, has been released from prison after admitting to embezzling nearly $40 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's banking firm Cartu.

In 2015, Cartu loaned the BTC to Bachiashvili for a mining operation, but prosecutors claim he instead kept it for himself. Bachiashvili fled Georgia in March 2024, but was arrested at the border with Azerbaijan shortly after. He had initially been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Under a plea deal, his sentence was reduced to a one-year suspended term and he was ordered to pay a $19,000 fine. The charges against Bachiashvili's parents, who were accused of helping launder $3.5 million worth of Cartu's Bitcoin, were also dropped.

The case drew attention due to Ivanishvili's influential position in Georgian politics and the scale of the alleged theft, one of the largest cryptocurrency embezzlement cases tied to a sitting political figure.