Tbilisi court orders detention in absentia of Bachiashvili’s parents in money laundering case

A Tbilisi City Court judge has ordered pre-trial detention for the parents of former Co-Investment Fund head Giorgi Bachiashvili, who are accused of assisting their son in laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds involving Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Judge Eka Barbakadze on Tuesday granted the prosecution’s request to impose detention on 65-year-old ophthalmologist Marina Ramazashvili and 75-year-old surgeon Aleksandre Bachiashvili. Neither attended the 30 September hearing, with case files showing they left Georgia for the United States in late February.

Prosecutors alleged that between 2017 and 2023 the couple helped their son conceal and integrate nearly $3 million and more than 1 million lari of unlawfully obtained funds by purchasing and reselling at least seven properties, transferring proceeds to companies under Bachiashvili’s control, and mixing assets across bank accounts.

Defence lawyers dismissed the charges as baseless, arguing the elderly couple were being targeted as part of a campaign of “political revenge” against their son, who has already been convicted in a separate high-profile cryptocurrency fraud case. Lawyer Levan Makharashvili described the parents as “a 75-year-old renowned surgeon and a 65-year-old ophthalmologist” who “wouldn’t even understand what they are accused of,” insisting there were no witnesses to support the prosecution’s claims.

Another lawyer, Davit Jandieri, said most of the evidence cited came from Bachiashvili’s earlier case files and warned that attempts to seek Interpol red notices against the parents could be challenged on grounds of political persecution.

Bachiashvili, once considered a close financial ally of billionaire Ivanishvili, was convicted in March and sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison in the cryptocurrency case. On 30 September he was separately handed a further four-and-a-half-year prison term for illegally crossing the Georgia–Armenia border earlier this year.

In his final courtroom statement, Bachiashvili denounced the proceedings against him and his parents as “revenge” and called the money-laundering allegations “absurd and shameful.”

A preliminary hearing in the parents’ case is scheduled for 24 November. If convicted, they face 10 to 12 years in prison.