By Lucy Papachristou
TBILISI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A former aide to Georgia's most powerful man, who had been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for embezzling cryptocurrency from his former boss, was released on Wednesday, Georgian media reported, citing his lawyer.
Giorgi Bachiashvili, who had previously dismissed the charges as politically motivated, fled the country last year while on trial for defrauding billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader. He was later brought back to Georgia and jailed after being convicted in absentia.
The prosecutor's office said Bachiashvili had now fully admitted guilt. Under the plea agreement, his sentence was reduced to a one‑year suspended term and a fine of 50,000 lari ($18,900). Reuters was unable to immediately reach his lawyer, Levan Makharashvili, for comment.
Ivanishvili, who is seen as controlling the ruling Georgian Dream party he founded, has steered traditionally pro-Western Georgia in a more pro-Russian direction since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, while clamping down on opposition at home.
Bachiashvili, who used to run Ivanishvili's investment fund, was accused of embezzling Bitcoin worth roughly $39 million at that time as part of a 2015 loan from Ivanishvili’s Cartu Bank, which prosecutors said Bachiashvili had intended to use to launch a cryptocurrency mining business.
The Georgian branch of Transparency International has said that there is a lack of evidence against Bachiashvili, and that the case appears to reflect Ivanishvili's financial interests.
The former aide fled Georgia while on trial in March 2025, crossing by land into Armenia before moving on to a third country.
Less than three months later, Georgian authorities said they had arrested Bachiashvili near the country's southern border with Armenia and Azerbaijan, and brought him back to Tbilisi, later sentencing him to an additional 4-1/2 years for illegal border crossing.
One of his lawyers, Robert Amsterdam, said that his client had been returned "forcibly" and was at risk of torture.
Prosecutors on Wednesday also dropped earlier charges against Bachiashvili's elderly parents for helping him to launder some $3.5 million of the cryptocurrency.
($1 = 2.6470 laris)
(Reporting by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Ros Russell)
