Prosecutors charge ex-PM Irakli Garibashvili with money laundering

Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has charged former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili with large-scale money laundering.

At a press briefing today, Prosecutor General Giorgi Gvaramidze said Garibashvili had fully admitted guilt to the charges.

Prosecutors allege secret business dealings worth $6.5 million

The Prosecutor’s Office said the investigation was carried out by the Anti-Corruption Department of the State Security Service.

According to Prosecutor General Giorgi Gvaramidze, Irakli Garibashvili, who served as Georgia’s defence minister and later as prime minister between 2019 and 2024, secretly engaged in various types of business activity and received large-scale illegal income from them.

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“Irakli Garibashvili, as a public official, was prohibited by law from engaging in business activities or receiving any income other than his official salary. Nevertheless, during his time in office, he secretly carried out business operations and received income of illegal origin,” said Giorgi Gvaramidze.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Garibashvili attempted to legalise the illicit income by declaring false information in his tax returns, claiming that the large sums he received were gifts from a family member.

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“Thus, an artificial source was created to conceal the origin of a large portion of the funds he had obtained through illegal private business activities,” the Prosecutor General said.

Unexplained assets and frozen funds

According to prosecutors, in 2023–2024 Garibashvili took the following steps to legalise unexplained assets:

• He purchased and registered two vehicles in a relative’s name for a total of 463,630 lari (about $171,000).
• He acquired 100% of the shares in a company through a family member for 210,000 lari (about $77,000).
• He invested 3,670,172 lari (about $1.35 million) in a limited liability company registered under a family member’s name.

“Irakli Garibashvili converted most of the unexplained funds into foreign currency to conceal their true nature and source. A total of $6.5 million was discovered and seized during a search of his apartment on 17 October 2025,” the Prosecutor General said.

Preventive measures and additional restrictions

The prosecution requested the court to impose bail of 1 million lari (around $368,000) on Garibashvili, payable in cash or property.

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“Alongside the bail request, the prosecution is asking the court to impose additional restrictions on the defendant, including surrendering his Georgian passport and a ban on leaving the country,” the prosecutor added.

Context

Irakli Garibashvili was the right-hand man and main protégé of Georgia’s informal ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili. He served as the country’s prime minister from 2021 to 2024, and previously, from 2019 to 2021, as defence minister. In April 2024, Garibashvili resigned from the premiership of his own accord.

Investigative journalists, opposition parties, and non-governmental organisations have long reported on corruption and illicit earnings within the Georgian Dream government. In 2023, some even called for Garibashvili’s impeachment over the so-called “charter scandal,” when it was revealed that he had flown his son to the US on a chartered plane for studies. Garibashvili claimed that the expensive flight had been paid for by his retired father.

Garibashvili charged