PANews reported on March 8 that according to Decrypt, a Georgian court ordered the imprisonment of Mission Gate founder and venture capitalist George Bachiashvili, who is currently on trial for allegedly embezzling investment profits from former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Bachiashvili was previously out on bail of 2.5 million Georgian Lari ($900,000), but the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the investor violated his bail conditions by crossing the border into Armenia on March 2. As a result, Judge Giorgi Gelashvili supported the prosecutor’s motion to keep Bachiashvili in custody, saying that the bail violation justified stricter detention measures.

Bachiashvili is accused of misappropriating 8,253.13 bitcoins between 2015 and 2017 and investing a $5 million loan secured by Ivanishvili’s personal funds in a bitcoin mining operation through Bitfury. Ivanishvili claims that he and Bachiashvili agreed to liquidate the mined bitcoins in the second half of 2016 after discussing the stability of the cryptocurrency market.

Bachiashvili repaid the loan to the issuer, Ivanishvili’s Cartu Bank, in August and September 2016, and about a year later he transferred $536,900 in profits to the bank’s director, Nato Khaindrava. However, Ivanishvili claims that Bachiashvili misled him about the true returns of the mining operation and that the Bitcoins mined were worth millions of dollars. As a result, Bachiashvili was charged with violating Articles 182 and 194 of the Georgian Criminal Code, which prohibit embezzlement and money laundering.

Bachiashvili served as an aide to Ivanishvili, whose wealth is estimated at $7.6 billion, a quarter of Georgia's GDP.