Trump Tower Tbilisi Names Firm Tied to Oligarch With $123 Million at Sberbank
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 7
Trump Tower Tbilisi Names Firm Tied to Oligarch With $123 Million at Sberbank
3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 7
Summary
A joint investigation found Trump Tower Tbilisi’s announced partner list included Biograpi Living, co-owned by Georgian-born oligarch Paata Gamgoneishvili, who built his fortune in Russia and has been linked to Kremlin-connected business networks.
Biograpi now denies any role in the 70-story project, even though the Trump announcement named it and said the tower was backed by Riverside, a Gamgoneishvili-controlled firm; Biograpi’s Instagram had also promoted the development as a joint effort.
Registry records show Biograpi owns no stake in the project vehicle, Idea LLC, but Riverside was listed as one of Idea’s creditors in January, leaving Gamgoneishvili financially adjacent to the deal despite the denial.
Past reporting tied Gamgoneishvili and partner Roland Isaev to a suspected Lukoil-linked siphoning scheme and to a failed 2018 Bulgarian power-grid bid; records also showed roughly $123 million at Sberbank and $80 million at Swiss lenders.
The Tbilisi tower had already drawn scrutiny because other local partners were linked to sanctioned Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and donors to his pro-Russian party, while the White House said the project has nothing to do with President Trump.