Bera Ivanishvili, the son of Georgian Dream founder and billionaire honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili, said on September 30 that he plans to take legal action over what he described as a “discrediting and defamatory campaign” against him and his family, including allegations that he protects so-called scam call centers.
Ivanishvili said that for years, “certain forces” had conducted “a discrediting and defamatory campaign” against him and his family, periodically accusing him of “all kinds of filth.” He said that Davit Asatiani, who served as president of the Georgian Bar Association from 2017 to 2025, will be his lawyer, with whose help he will “seek a legal response to each and every dirty, defamatory accusation” against him.
According to Ivanishvili, the accusations form part of “a well-planned, coordinated campaign” that “can no longer go unanswered,” adding that “I have become convinced that leaving this stream of lies and filth unanswered has become a kind of encouraging factor for the people orchestrating this process.”
Ivanishvili said that “specific media outlets and specific individuals,” whom he did not name, had recently spread information claiming that he is “protecting call centers,” that “people are arrested on his instructions,” and that he “goes into unlawful deals,” among other allegations.
“Merely posing questions on such matters is enough to reveal apparent signs of an attempt at defamation, yet the aforementioned subjects go further and disseminate information about my supposed criminal activity in an assertive form, without anyone having presented even a single fact to confirm this absurd,” he said.
Ivanishvili also criticized media reports that, he said, rely on “incognito respondents — people of unidentified identity sitting with their backs turned in a dark room, who have no identifying features whatsoever — and incomprehensible voice messages whose authenticity cannot be established.”
“Under such circumstances, turning to the court is not an act of revenge against anyone, but rather a way to protect my dignity and rights,” Ivanishvili said. “I want the defamatory attacks directed against me to receive a legal assessment, and if the court establishes the fact of defamation, for the persons responsible for all of this to bear responsibility in accordance with the law.”
Ivanishvili concluded, saying that “I am only demanding justice and the establishment of the truth, including so that in the future neither I nor anyone else has to endure such injustice.”
The statement follows recent changes to Georgian defamation laws that critics described as a further blow to freedom of speech.
Under the amendments, the burden of proof was shifted entirely from the plaintiff to the respondent, who will now have to be the one to justify why a statement was not defamatory. The changes also allow people who consider themselves victims of defamation to seek financial or moral compensation damages.
Scam call centers operating in Georgia have been a longstanding concern and have led to a series of arrests and prosecutions, including amid international investigations into operations targeting victims in Western countries. A 2025 investigation by OCCRP and international media partners found that one Tbilisi-based network stole USD 35 million from more than 6,100 people between May 2022 and February 2025, while more recent journalistic reports suggest the alleged scammers remain active despite investigations.
The issue has also featured in recent criminal investigations involving former senior officials. In February, the Prosecutor’s Office charged ten people, including ex-Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, with fraud and money-laundering charges linked to scam call centers, alleging that his network protected them.
Separately, former State Security Service head Grigol Liluashvili was convicted in September and sentenced to 13 years in prison, including on allegations of accepting a bribe in exchange for protecting a scam call center.
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