Irakli Rukhadze Loses Legal Battle at UK Supreme Court
Irakli Rukhadze, the owner of Georgia’s main pro-government mouth-piece Imedi TV, has lost his legal battle at the UK Supreme Court and has been ordered to pay more than $170 million in compensation for “commercial conspiracy”. The ruling upholds earlier decisions from the Court of Appeal in 2023 and 2022, which found that Rukhadze, along with business partners Benjamin Marson and Igor Alekseev, owed significant compensation to companies Revoker LLP and Recovery Partners GP Limited.
The decision is essentially in favor of the family of deceased Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili’s family. The case is related to a verdict in November 2018, in which an English court found that Rukhadze and his business partners were found to have hindered efforts to recover the assets of Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili following his death in 2008 and committed a “commercial conspiracy”, as a result of which the companies, Recovery Partners GP Limited and Revoker LLP, lost the opportunity to implement a “billion-dollar project”.
The seven judges of the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Rukhadze’s claims, confirming that he and his partners deliberately undermined a project to locate and restore Patarkatsishvili’s assets, which had been entrusted to them by the businessman’s investment company, Salford Capital Partners International. As a result, the assets intended to benefit Patarkatsishvili’s family were instead appropriated by Rukhadze and his partners through their own venture, Hunnewell Partners.
Despite appealing the verdict, the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in March 2019, and in July 2022, determined the compensation to be paid, amounting to over $170 million, plus accrued interest and legal costs. Some of Rukhadze’s assets were seized in connection with the case.
After the billionaire’s death, Patarkatsishvili’s family received a total of more than $2 billion in assets, and in the process, the defendants accumulated a significant fortune as compensation. The defendants then established Hunnewell Partners to complete the asset search and reaped significant financial gains, including investments in major Georgian companies such as Liberty Bank, Rustavi Metallurgical Plant, Magticom and HeidelbergCement.
The holding also owns the Georgian Media Production Group, which in turn owns 100% of the Imedi TV and GDS (Georgian Dream Studios) television companies. Irakli Rukhadze and his business partners also own a 50.5% stake in Georgia’s largest cement producer, Honeywell Cement (formerly Heidelberg Cement), where he is a business partner of GD founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Also Read:
- 06/03/2025 – TV Imedi Report Normalizes Firing of Civil Servant for Protest
- 23/01/2025 – Interview with Imedi TV Owner Irakli Rukhadze
- 25/12/2024 – Imedi TV Owner Skewers GD, Kobakhidze
- 15/07/2024 – Pro-government TV Owner Says Euro-Atlantic Aspirations Should Not be Included in Constitution
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