Bidzina Ivanishvili’s lawyer responds to The New York Times article on Giorgi Bachiashvili case

Teimuraz Tsikvadze, lawyer for Georgian Dream’s honorary chair and founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, on Tuesday issued a statement regarding an article published in The New York Times about former Co-Investment Fund head Giorgi Bachiashvili’s case, calling the piece “commissioned, financed and entirely detached from the truth”.

Bachiaashvili left Georgia on 4 March before a court could sentence him to 11 years in prison in a separate case concerning alleged misappropriation of cryptocurrency linked to Ivanishvili.

Tsikvadze said the article, authored by journalist Philip Shishkin and published on Sunday, was ordered by Giorgi Bachiashvili himself and aimed to discuss “the unlawful appropriation and money laundering” of Bitcoin assets belonging to Ivanishvili.

“The article is a clear example that The New York Times, like The Guardian, operates under the same influence as certain local, biased media outlets - widely known to be generously funded, including by Bachiashvili, using misappropriated assets,” Tsikvadze wrote.

He added the article presents “only Bachiashvili’s views,” while the positions and detailed responses from the victim’s side were either ignored or presented in vague, abstract form “to create the impression of weakness or lack of credibility.”

Tsikvadze also argued that The New York Times piece goes far beyond the scope of Bachiashvili’s alleged misappropriation of Ivanishvili’s cryptocurrency and delves into “politically charged topics” such as “rigged elections,” “authoritarianism” and “concentration of power,” including references to political situations in countries like the United States and Hungary. “This clearly indicates that Bachiashvili is not the only actor behind this and that we are dealing with much deeper processes,” he stated.

The lawyer further criticised the publication’s journalistic standards, describing the author as “not an objective narrator” but someone who “offers readers direct conclusions as truth.”

Tsikvadze expressed disappointment that such narratives appear in globally respected media but pointed to recent reports that US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times as an example of “how far the paper has strayed from journalistic integrity”.

“When even the President of the United States calls The New York Times one of the most corrupt and degraded newspapers in history, it becomes even clearer that the article published in relation to Bachiashvili’s case is a commissioned and paid-for piece with no connection to reality,” Tsikvadze concluded, adding that “once-reputable major outlets today differ little from certain Georgian media driven by narrow, mercantile interests”.