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By Philip Shishkin
Mr. Shishkin spent a decade as a correspondent at The Wall Street Journal and is an expert on Central Asia and the Caucasus.
In late May, a fugitive entrepreneur with control over a Bitcoin fortune walked into the lobby of an Abu Dhabi hotel for a routine meeting with a lawyer. Minutes later, he was surrounded by a group of security operatives, whisked away in a convoy of two cars and eventually blindfolded and bundled onto a secret private flight to his native Georgia. There, he was imprisoned and asked to transfer his Bitcoin to the Caucasus nation’s mercurial billionaire master. To reinforce the message, a goon was sent into his cell to beat him unconscious.
That, at least, is the entrepreneur’s account. According to him, this was the dramatic denouement to his relationship with the Georgian billionaire. More than a decade before, the two had been on the same side. The young man, George Bachiashvili, had worked for the billionaire, Bidzina Ivanishvili, helping manage his businesses and investments. Over time, as Mr. Ivanishvili secured almost total control over Georgia and Mr. Bachiashvili was drawn deeper into the world of cryptocurrency, things fell apart. Now they face each other as enemies, with one seemingly seeking the destruction of the other.
