Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili filled the declaration of property which was published at once. Nobody had doubts that Ivanishvili is one of the richest and most successful Georgians, but everybody wanted to know what he owned and where he stored his capital. However, the declaration of property does not answer all the questions.
According to Forbes, Ivanishvili’s capital is $5.5 billion. However, Forbes doesn’t consider the Caucasus peculiarity when a significant part of property is registered on family members on their word and family ties. According to the declaration, the prime minister owns 95820 square meters of land in Georgia: in Bakuriani, Chorvila village, and Tskhneti – Tbilisi’s suburb. Yekaterina Khvedelidze, the billionaire’s wife owns major areas in Saguramo, Sachkher, and Chorvila. The land in Russia, in the Odintsovski district, and flats in Tbilisi and Moscow are also registered on her name.
Premier’s son, rapper Ber Ivanishvili owns a significant part of family property as well. He owns dozens of land parcels. He is also the owner of houses in Sachkher and Ozurgeti. The younger son Tsotne and daughter Gvantsa have no real estate, while the elder son Uta is not mentioned in the declaration at all. According to a strange law operating in Georgia, a filer is obliged to mention property registered on a family member who permanently lives in Georgia. Uta Ivanishvili lives in France. At the same time, he is a nominal owner of a major bank of the country – Kartu which in fact belongs to his father.
As for movable property, it appears that either Bidzina Ivanishvili or his relatives do not own any movable property. At least, this form of the document is blank. At the same time, according to the other form of the declaration, Premier owns stocks and bonds of banks and companies JP Morgan Ccase and Co, Carrefour, Google inc.- Shares, and many other financial giants. The number of stocks is about 3 million – from $1 to $4 thousand each. As for “cash”, it is registered that Yekaterina Khvedelidze has $295 thousand, 20 thousand euro, and 45 thousand lari.
As for bank accounts, Bidzina Ivanishvili and Yekaterina Khvedelidze have only checking accounts, and the general credit volume doesn’t surpass several millions of dollars in banks of Kartu, Raiffeisen Centrobank AG-Si, COUTTS AND CO, and AMERICAN EQSPRESS CENTURION.
The declaration actually states that in 2012 Ivanishvili and his wife didn’t make any profit from business, as well as presents which cost more than $300. Dividends from deposits were $75,845. At the same time, the list of expenses is long: last year Ivanishvili’s family spent about $500 thousand for communal services, transport, education, juridical service, and hotels.
The picture won’t be complete, if we forget that in recent 10-12 years Ivanishvili spent about $1 billion for charity (pensions for the creative community’s representatives and construction of churches). However, officially the billionaire has nothing in common with that: sums were allocated from the fund Kartu which belongs to a citizen of Canada with a “Canadian” name Gbego Tossa Ahinbego Jilber. Mr. Jilber hardly knows anything about the Georgian culture or even where the country with this name is situated.
Moreover, it is unclear where $1 billion gained through selling his Russian assets has gone. Ivanishvili’s declaration provoked a new discussion on his business past and reasons for his success, a common boy from the village of Chorvila.
