Georgia: Mtavari TV Facing Pressure to Close

A popular independent TV company in Georgia, Mtavari, is facing pressure to close, Orda reports, citing Civil Georgia.

CEO Giorgi Gabunia says the company co-founder, businessman Zaza Okuashvili, is conspiring with the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. 

Ivanishvili is the founder and honorary chair of the ruling Georgian Dream Party. 

Gabunia claims Okuashvili is using the company as a bargaining chip in his legal battle with the authorities.

Gabunia stated that Okuashvili is acting through his appointed director, Gogi Kurdadze.

At Okuashvili's instructions, he blocks the company's financial operations and terminates contracts, resulting in Mtvari remaining without funding.

Okuashvili responded by accusing Gabunia and another founder of Mtavari, Nika Gvaramia, of bringing the TV channel to bankruptcy, using it for personal enrichment, and turning television "into a machine for laundering millions of dollars internationally." 

Zaza Okuashvili lives in the UK. For several years, he was battling authorities. In 2018, the revenue service announced a multimillion-dollar tax debt owed by his company, Omega Group Tobacco. 

The court proceedings are ongoing.

Mtvari journalists believe that Kurdadze aims to create artificial problems for the country's most influential channel to benefit the ruling Georgian Dream party.