By Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian authorities said on Tuesday they had arrested an ex-aide to Georgia’s most powerful man who fled the country earlier this year while on trial on charges of embezzling cryptocurrency worth more than $800 million from his former boss.

Giorgi Bachiashvili, who says the charges were politically motivated, was sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison for defrauding Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister who is widely seen as Georgia’s de facto leader.

Bachiashvili, who used to run Ivanishvili’s investment fund, denies wrongdoing and has said the case aimed to punish him for breaking with Ivanishvili by publicly supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Georgia’s State Security Service, in a statement published on Facebook, sai

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