A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.
According to official records, Fund Cartu is solely owned by Cartu Group JSC, which is 35% owned by Uta Ivanishvili, the eldest son of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire politician who is honorary chair of Georgia’s ruling party. Bidzina Ivanishvili was put under US sanctions by the Biden administration in 2024 for “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”.
Uta Ivanishvili, who is not under sanctions, owned 100% of Cartu Group JSC until 2024 but reduced his shareholding to 35% when his father was subjected to US economic restrictions. It is not possible to identify the remaining 65% ownership of Cartu Group JSC today, as individual shareholdings of under 5% can be held anonymously.
The links between the Trump Organization and the Ivanishvili family will raise fresh concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Similar franchise agreements struck by the Trump Organization include a luxury hotel and golf course complex in Oman, built on land owned by the country’s government. The White House has said that “neither the president nor his family” have “ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest”.
In a press release published by the Trump Organization in April, Eric Trump said the company was “proud to bring this globally recognised standard of excellence to Georgia”. Four Georgian firms and the US-based Sapir Organization are partnering with the Trump Organization for the project, which will build Georgia’s tallest building. There are no sanctions against any of those companies or their directors.
The central Tbilisi plot on which the Trump Tower will be built is an old Soviet horse-racing track, now owned by Cartu. An agreement was reached in 2023 for it to be sold to a company called Central Park Avenue LLC, but only a small peripheral portion of the land has been transferred so far. Temo Tsikvadze, a lawyer for Ivanishvili, said Bidzina Ivanishvili donated most of the land to the state and is building a public park on it at his own expense.
