Spectacular collapse of former prime minister accused of having $6.5 million in his apartment

Georgia’s former prime minister Irakli Garibashvili has appeared in court on charges of large-scale money laundering, a shocking reversal for one of the most loyal allies of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, considered Georgia’s de facto leader.

Prosecutors said that when his home was searched by investigators earlier this month, they found $6.5m (£4.9m) in cash.

Garibashvili, 43, was prime minister twice during the Ivanishvili years – first from 2013-15 and then again from 2021 until January last year.

He has now pleaded guilty to corruption charges that could lead to 12 years in prison and has been given bail of one million Georgian lari ($368,000; £277,000).

The charges against the former prime minister are the next in a series of arrests of former government officials.

But the case against Garibashvili is the first prosecution of a high-ranking member of Georgia’s ruling elite and comes amid the ruling party’s authoritarian turn away from the West.

While he was first Minister of Defense and then Prime Minister between 2019 and 2024, he is alleged to have “covertly and covertly engaged in various types of business activities and obtained income of illegal origin on particularly large scale”.

He is accused of laundering that income and falsely declaring money as gifts from family members.

His lawyer, Amiran Giguashvili, confirmed that his client is working with the authorities.

“The court took into account that Mr Irakli agrees to the charges, is not absconding from the investigation and is cooperating,” he told the BBC.

The corruption case marks a dramatic fall for a politician who worked for Ivanishvili’s companies before entering politics in 2011 as part of the billionaire’s Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012.

In February 2014, he signed the Association Agreement of Georgia with the European Union.

In recent years, however, he has led Georgia’s move away from the EU. He developed close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and said NATO expansion was one of the main reasons for the war in Ukraine.

According to Georgian political analyst Gia Nodia, the former prime minister’s downfall reflects Bidzina Ivanishvili’s distrust of his former political appointees.

“Ivanishvili is really the leader, he decided for some reason that there was some kind of betrayal in his team,” Nodia said.

“At this point, he trusts (current Prime Minister Irakli) Kobakhidze, but he stopped trusting his closest lieutenant, not only Garibashvili, but also (former security chief) Liluashvili and others.”

Meanwhile, political turmoil in Georgia continues, a year after Georgian Dream won contested parliamentary elections that the then-president refused to recognize.

There have been daily protests since the government announced in November 2024 that it would suspend membership talks with the EU, and most opposition leaders are now in prison.

The new laws target civil society, pro-opposition media, and jail journalists and activists.

“Ivanishvili looks like (he) is under siege,” says Gia Nodia. “He believes in these crazy deep state conspiracies that the West wants to destroy him through these continuous protests in Georgia.