Partner of Khazaradze and Japaridze pays $6.58 million to Georgian Gov’t following US arbitration loss

According to Imedi TV, Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze’s partner has paid $6,584,848 to the Government of Georgia after losing an arbitration case in Washington, D.C. Although they had the legal right to appeal the decision, they chose not to do so.

As reported earlier, Khazaradze and Japaridze - the leaders of the opposition Lelo party - lost their dispute with Georgia over the Anaklia deep-sea port project at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington a few weeks ago.

The Ministry of Justice of Georgia confirmed that ICSID fully upheld the Georgian Government’s claims.

In the Washington case, Dutch businessman Bob Meijer, a partner of Khazaradze and Japaridze, demanded $64 million in damages.

Instead, the tribunal dismissed all of his claims and ordered him to pay $6.5 million to the Georgian Government.

This is not the first legal defeat for Khazaradze and Japaridze in the Anaklia case. Exactly one year ago, the consortium also lost arbitration in Paris, where it had sought $1.5 billion from Georgia.

That tribunal likewise rejected the claims and required the consortium to pay $650,000 to the state. Khazaradze and Japaridze did not appeal that ruling and complied with the payment, effectively acknowledging their responsibility for the project’s failure.