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Eurasia
January 18, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
Georgians ask 'why oligarch Ivanishvili's attacking TBC Bank’
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
Georgia’s chief prosecutor was personally asked last year by the chairman of ruling party Georgian Dream, billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili,
to investigate TBC Bank’s operations over the past 15 years, BusinessPressNews (BPN) has reported quoting unofficial sources.
Georgia’s London-listed TBC Bank is presently un- der investigation for “activities [that] clearly showed the characteristics of legalization of illegal income, i.e. money laundering, and other illicit acts”, ac- cording to a statement from the Office of the Pros- ecutor General of Georgia issued last week. Larg- est Georgian lender TBC — included in the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 Index since June 2017 — has responded to the announcement by saying it is the target of “dark PR” and a “deliberate attempt to discredit and tarnish its reputation”.
Various media outlets in Georgia have reported that the request for investigations into TBC seems politically motivated. JAM news ran an explainer, asking “Why is Georgian billionaire Ivanishvili wag- ing war against the country’s most popular bank?”
It quoted Gia Jandieri, vice-president of the New Economic School of Georgia, as one observer among many concerned that what is happening to the bank is having a negative impact on the small nation’s international image, hitting sentiment among potential investors. “When investors see that the state can attack such a strong player in the banking sector so openly, they will think a hundred times before coming to our country with their capital,” Jandieri reportedly said.
Both JAM and BPN looked at how Georgian- Russian dual national Ivanishvili, a former prime minister of Georgia who is also its richest person, appears to be displeased by TBC co-founder and
chairperson Mamuka Khazaradze developing the $2.5bn Anaklia deep water port on the Black Sea coast — seen as Georgia’s most important project — with the support of another former PM, Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Kvirikashvili stepped down in June last year, officially following street protests against the weak function- ing of the judiciary and law enforcement agen- cies. But the resignation was said to have occurred amid disagreements with Ivanishvili, who had just returned to politics as head of Georgian Dream.
Ivanishvili successfully invested heavily in securing the presidential election runoff victory
of his favoured candidate, independent Salome Zurabishvili, in late November. The sometimes eccentric businessman, who owns a private zoo with penguins, lemurs and a zebra, is positioning Georgian Dream to take advantage of its executive, parliamentary and presidential power ahead of the 2020 general election in Georgia. He has been conspicuously silent in the Georgian media over the TBC investigation.
Going beyond the Anaklia port issue, the disagree- ments between the two ex-prime ministers are deeper and relate to economic policies, BPN com- mented: while Kvirikashvili is inclined to support the development of the market economy — hence his encouragement of large private investments like Anaklia port, which will be Georgia’s first deep water port and will open up an export route for cargo transit from Central Asia to Europe and vice versa — Ivanishvili rather argues for a centralised economy.
Anaklia port, with a planned transfer capacity of 100mn tonnes per year, might also come to be an important element as regards the modern-day Silk Road trade routes being developed by China.