Imagine building a successful business from scratch, pouring years of labor into it, only for a National Bank official to turn up demanding half of your company. The protagonists of today’s story do not even have to imagine.
A high-profile corruption scandal is unfolding in Georgia, centered around the National Bank and the thriving cryptocurrency company Bitexchange. It all began in Tbilisi in July 2024, when Nana Keinishvili—a board member of the National Bank of Georgia, former lawmaker from the ruling party, and ex-head of the Red Cross—invited the crypto exchange’s founders, Davit Orjonikidze and Nino Kopilashvili, to her home.
The conversation lasted four hours, during which Nana Keinishvili outlined a scheme amounting to textbook corporate raiding. The official proposed that the owners of Bitexchange establish a new joint venture and transfer half of the shares to her son-in-law, an external legal consultant for the National Bank.
In exchange for a nominal contribution of 800,000 lari toward a business valued at a minimum of 10 million, the official promised comprehensive political patronage, expedited approval of all regulatory audits, and the elimination of key competitors in the crypto ATM market using her leverage and high-level government connections.
Under Georgian law, National Bank officials and their relatives are strictly prohibited from holding stakes in financial enterprises. Nevertheless, an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) revealed that Keinishvili is directly or indirectly connected to multiple entities, including payment service providers that seamlessly secured regulatory licenses and gained access to the open banking system. Furthermore, one of her companies processed transactions for the Russian ride-hailing and delivery service Yandex Go in Georgia.
Orjonikidze and Kopilashvili submitted a recording of the conversation to the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG), yet no action followed. For safety reasons, the couple fled the country. In September 2026, Bitexchange was fined nearly 600,000 lari. Throughout this entire period, Keinishvili retained her position on the Board of the National Bank of Georgia.
State authorities took action only after RFE/RL reached out to them for comment, indicating that an investigative report was slated for publication. Keinishvili was suspended from her duties, and both the Prosecutor’s Office and the National Bank announced the opening of inquiries into her conduct.
Critics, however, cast doubt on the sincerity of these moves. According to analysts, the episode involving the official exposes deep-seated institutional decay that enabled Keinishvili to offer protection in the first place. The National Bank, legally mandated to remain impartial, enforces compliance selectively: while some companies are driven to ruin by punitive fines, politically connected entities continue operating with total impunity, regardless of the rule of law.
