TBILISI - Former Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili was charged on Friday with large-scale money laundering, the first time a senior figure from the governing elite has faced prosecution during a broader crackdown targeting opposition leaders.

Garibashvili, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2024 and previously from 2013 to 2015, had been a longtime loyalist of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto ruler.