- Bidzina Ivanishvili’s bank loaned the Bitcoin in 2015.
- Sentence reduced from 15 years to one year, suspended.
- Fund manager fled country early last year, but was arrested shortly after.
A former investment fund chief who embezzled almost $40 million in Bitcoin from Georgia’s former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has been released from prison.
The man, the Georgian-Russian national Giorgi Bachiashvili, was jailed for 11 years in absentia after fleeing the country in March.
He was later arrested on the border with Azerbaijan and transferred to prison to serve his sentence, with courts ordering him to serve a further four years for illegal flight, the Russian-language media outlet Vzglad reported.
But after striking a plea deal, Bachiashvili’s sentence was reduced, and he was allowed to walk free.
“Bachiashvili has fully admitted his guilt to all the criminal charges,” prosecutors told Georgian broadcaster Channel 1. “He also fully cooperated with the investigation and has paid compensation for the damages incurred.”
The development comes as the popularity of Bitcoin mining continues to grow in Georgia.
Regulatory data published late last year shows the Bitcoin mining sector’s power consumption tripled in the first 10 months of 2025, reaching 617 million kilowatt-hours. This represents 5% of the nation’s total electricity consumption.
Prosecutors drop charges
Ivanishvili is one of the richest people in Georgia and wields enormous political influence. He serves as the honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
In the early 2010s, Ivanishvili hired Bachiashvili to manage his own and his businesses’ assets.
In 2015, Ivanishvili’s banking firm Cartu loaned Bachiashvili the Bitcoin after the latter said he would use the cryptocurrency to launch a crypto mining firm. Instead of doing so, prosecutors said, Bachiashvili embezzled the coins.
Prosecutors also indicted Bachiashvili’s parents, accusing them of aiding their son’s efforts to launder $3.5 million worth of Cartu’s Bitcoin.
Prosecution officials have also dropped these charges.
Prosecutors said that, under the terms of the plea deal, Bachiashvili’s sentence was reduced to a suspended one-year jail term. Bachiashvili has also agreed to pay a $19,000 fine.
Most of Georgia’s data centres focus their efforts on crypto mining, with the majority of miners based in Tbilisi and Kutaisi’s free industrial zones.
Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.
