TBILISI - Georgian authorities on June 27 impounded some assets of billionaire opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili in a move likely to raise tension in the Caucasus state ahead of a parliamentary election this year.
The bailiffs from the National Enforcement Bureau said that
Ivanishvili’s 100 percent share in Cartu Bank, 21.7 percent
share in Progress Bank as well as his 100 percent share in JSC
Cartu Group had been seized after the tycoon’s refusal to pay a
multi-million-dollar fine imposed on him earlier this month.
Ivanishvili said he had no longer owned shares in any of the
companies in Georgia after handing them over to his son. State
authorities said Ivanishvili was still the owner. It was not
immediately clear what the impounded assets were worth.
“The Georgian Central Bank had not been notified about any
changes in ownership of Cartu Bank’s shares as well as Progress
Bank’s shares,” the National Enforcement Bureau said in a
statement.
Ivanishvili said the decision was illegal. “The authorities
can seize whatever they want, because they are already acting
beyond any legal framework,” he told reporters.
Police seized satellite dishes last week from a firm owned
by Ivanishvili’s brother and suspected of giving them away to
win votes for Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition challenging
President Mikheil Saakashvili’s party in the election.
The state audit agency ruled earlier this month that the
free distribution of satellite dishes with a loan from
Ivanishvili violated party funding rules, and he was fined 63.1
million lari ($37 million).
In a separate case, Ivanishvili was fined 11.2 million lari,
making a total penalty of 74.3 million lari.
In an apparent effort to ease tension, Georgia’s parliament
plans to start debate on reforms to the electoral code that
would require all cable providers to carry all channels in the
run-up to a parliamentary election in October.
Ivanishvili, 56, whose fortune is estimated at $6.4 billion
by Forbes magazine, has united opposition parties in the
Caucasus state of 4.5 million, but opinion polls show Georgian
Dream trails far behind the ruling United National Movement.
Saakashvili became the West’s darling when he rose to power
after the bloodless “rose revolution” that toppled Eduard
Shevardnadze in 2003. But opponents have since accused him of
curbing political freedoms and criticise him for leading Georgia
into a brief, disastrous war with Russia in August 2008.
