"TI: Georgian Airways and Georgian security services involved in abduction of Ivanishvili's ex-aide", 10 June 2025

Transparency International Georgia (TI) has published a legal assessment of the abduction of Giorgi Bachiashvili, former chairman of the Co-Investment Fund and ex-adviser to Bidzina Ivanishvili. According to the report, Georgian Airways was involved in the operation.

On 27 May 2025, it became known that Giorgi Bachiashvili, former financial adviser to Ivanishvili and former head of the Co-Investment Fund, had been arrested by Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) near the Georgian-Armenian border on charges of embezzling up to $42 million... On 2 March 2025, Giorgi Bachiashvili secretly left Georgia. The prosecutor’s office declared him wanted. On 10 March 2025, Tbilisi City Court sentenced him in absentia to 11 years in prison over the cryptocurrency case. The former Ivanishvili ally was found guilty of “large-scale embezzlement” and “money laundering.”

It is believed that Bachiashvili was brought back to Georgia on 26 May aboard a VIP flight operated by the airline. The report also highlights Georgian Airways’ connections with the ruling Georgian Dream party and Russia...

The possible involvement of Georgian Airways in this unlawful operation is not surprising, given the company’s ties to the Georgian Dream government and to Russia...

...In order to exact revenge on a personal opponent, [Ivanishvili] involved not only Georgian state structures, but also the intelligence services of foreign states and private companies,” Transparency International’s legal assessment reads.