Georgia’s former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has confessed to receiving illegal income over several years and is cooperating with investigators, according to the State Security Service (SSSG).
It came after police carried out sweeping raids at the homes of several former senior officials and their associates last week.
The announcement was made at a special briefing by Emzar Gagnidze, head of the agency’s Anti-Corruption Department, on Oct. 22.
Gagnidze said that Garibashvili “fully cooperated with investigators and admitted to the facts of unlawful enrichment.”
The SSSG said that investigators will decide how to legally qualify Garibashvili’s actions and whether to seek preventive measures against him in the coming days. The agency did not confirm whether the former Prime Minister is currently under arrest.
Background
Garibashvili’s name emerged recently in connection with an ongoing anti-corruption probe involving several high-ranking former officials.
On Oct. 17, investigators searched the homes of Garibashvili, former Security Service chief Grigol Liluashvili, and former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, seizing electronic devices, documents, and large amounts of cash.
The high-profile targets were members of the ruling Georgian Dream party and had been regarded as close allies of party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, suggesting a significant internal shakeup had taken place.
A day after the raids, the agency announced that a total of $7 million and 136,000 GEL in cash, 198 pieces of jewelry and watches, valuable paintings, thousands of pages of documentation, 50 mobile phones, and 119 electronic devices had been confiscated from multiple locations.
Following the arrests of other former officials – including a former Defense Minister and a Deputy Economy Minister – local media had queried whether the investigation would reach Garibashvili and Liluashvili.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Garibashvili’s successor and ally in the ruling Georgian Dream party, has so far declined to comment.
Partskhaladze, who served as Prosecutor General for just one month in 2023, is already sanctioned by both the United States and the United Kingdom for ties to Russian influence operations and support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Garibashvili, one of the most powerful figures in Georgian politics over the past decade, served as Prime Minister until his resignation on Jan. 29, 2024.
Liluashvili stepped down as Security Service chief on Apr. 2 amid reports he would take another ministerial post – a plan that was later dropped.
Corruption, power, and Western pressure
The case marks one of the most serious corruption investigations in recent years involving top figures of the Georgian Dream government, raising questions about internal power struggles within the ruling party as Georgia faces growing Western scrutiny over democratic backsliding and Russian influence.
Garibashvili’s confession could deepen internal rifts within the ruling party and increase Western pressure on Tbilisi to demonstrate genuine anti-corruption reforms.
As Georgia seeks closer ties with the European Union while facing accusations of Russian influence, the case underscores the fragile balance between political loyalty and the rule of law.