Georgia Arrests Ex-Defense Minister on Allegations of Money Laundering and Misuse of Authority
12.09.2025 17:10
Juansher Burchuladze is alleged to have directed an embezzlement scheme, and used stolen funds to buy property in Spain. Through his lawyer, he denied the allegations.
Georgia’s former Defense Minister, Juansher Burchuladze, has been arrested on charges of money laundering and abuse of power after an investigation connected him to a criminal case involving his former deputy, brother-in-law and another high ranking state official, the country’s State Security Service announced Thursday.
Burchuladze, who served as defense minister from 2021 until 2024, is accused of laundering more than 1.59 million lari (roughly $590,000) in illegal or unjustified income, said Emzar Gagnidze, head of the State Security Service’s anti-corruption agency, at a press briefing.
Burchuladze is alleged to have directed a scheme to embezzle state funds intended for the purchase of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine at a military hospital. He allegedly laundered his gains to purchase real estate in Malaga, Spain, for €544,000 ($638,000).
Burchuladze’s wife signed a fictitious sales agreement in December 2024 with a third party for €620,000 ($727,000) for a property in Tbilisi “in order to conceal the origin of the funds transferred to Spain,” said anti-corruption head Gagnidze.
“In reality, Juansher Burchuladze’s family did not sell the said property, and the purpose of the agreement was solely to conceal the origin of the funds to be transferred to Spain. In addition, fictitious loan agreements were also used,” said Gagnidze.
“It is also noteworthy that in order to conceal the illegal origin of the named €544,000, in March 2025, Juansher Burchuladze did not declare the real estate purchased in Spain at all in his asset declaration as a public official.”
If convicted, Burchuladze faces a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. In response to a question from independent broadcaster TV Pirveli, his lawyer Dimitri Khachidze said the former defense minister denies the charges.
“This accusation is absurd. I did not know they were planning to arrest him. I know a few details of this case, but I cannot speak about those details. Regarding the assessment, I can tell you that all of this is incorrect,” the lawyer said.
The State Security Service of Georgia said Burchuladze’s arrest is part of the criminal case against former Deputy Defense Minister Giorgi Khaindrava and two others — Vladimer Ghudushauri, former head of the Defense Department’s procurement arm, and Vasil Mkheidze, the former defense minister’s brother-in-law.
They were detained in July for allegedly manipulating a procurement deal to inflate the price of an MRI machine from 2.6 million lari to nearly 3.9 million lari, siphoning more than 1.3 million lari from the state budget.
Mkheidze and Khaindrava reportedly denied charges against them, while Ghudushauri exercised his right to remain silent, at a Tbilisi City Court hearing in which they were ordered into pre-trial detention.
Burchuladze resigned as defense minister in early 2024 following an offer to become Georgia’s ambassador to NATO. That offer, made by Prime Minister Irakli Koakhidze, did not materialize.
