The Tbilisi City Court granted GEL 2 500 000 bail to Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former Head of the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, for misappropriation of a “large amount’ of cryptocurrency and money laundering.

Defendant has 30 days to pay. As he said at the trial, he did not plead guilty.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, a foreign entity provided mining services to a Giorgi Bachiashvili-owned company under a 1-year contract for USD 6.3 million, which included a USD 5 million investment and a USD 1.33 million from Bachiashvili.

The scheme produced 24,661.85 bitcoins over the course of a year, resulting in a profit of 8,253.13 bitcoins, which the accused took in 2017, with just USD 536,900 remitted to the investor as their share of the profit.

The amount of appropriated bitcoins hit over USD 39 million.

The former Head of the Georgian Co-Investment Fund is facing 9 - 12 years in prison if found guilty.