Authorities Put Ivanishvili-Affiliated Firm's Property on Auction

National Bureau of Enforcement (NBE) at the Ministry of Justice put on auction property of Burji, a company affiliated to Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, after the company’s failure to pay GEL 11 million fine imposed earlier this month for alleged violation of political party funding rules.

Property put on auction includes real estate in Tbilisi and Sachkhere with total area of over 36,000 square meters and 203 vehicles of various types, among them cars, minibuses, pick up vehicles and cargo trucks, as well as several bulldozers and tractors.

Starting price of the property is GEL 5,153,831, half the market value of the seized property, according to the NBE. Online auction will be closed on August 2.

In a separate development, on July 26 the court ceased temporary conservatorship of Ivanishvili-affiliated Tbilisi-based Cartu Bank after the billionaire opposition politician paid USD 48 million fine, which Ivanishvili said was his contribution to relief efforts for disaster-hit provinces. According to the same court ruling Ivanishvili also regained control over his 21.7% of shares in Progress Bank, a Tbilisi-based bank founded by Kakha Kaladze, a retired footballer, who was a captain of the Georgian national team and is now a member of Ivanishvili’s party Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia.

Also on July 26 the Georgian Dream coalition said that Kakha Kaladze’s bank accounts in Georgia had been frozen by the court after a motion from the chief prosecutor’s office. One of the lawyers of Ivanishvili and of the Georgian Dream, Shalva Tadumadze, said that the accounts were frozen as part of ongoing investigation into alleged legalization of illegal income; the lawyer, however, said no details of the case were not yet clear as no additional information was provided in the court’s ruling. The chief prosecutor’s office has not yet commented on the case.

Civil Georgia