Badri Patarkatsishvili

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Badri Patarkatsishvili (ბადრი პატარკაციშვილი in Georgian, Russian: Бадри Шалвович Патаркацишвили; born October 31, 1955 in Tbilisi) is a Georgian businessman and philanthropist who started out his political career and made his important future contacts in the communist youth organisation, the Komsomol. He is the chairman of the Georgian Olympic Committee and the sports team Dinamo Tbilisi. He has been closely associated with Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky since the very beginning of the 1990s.

In 1992, he became a deputy Director General of LogoVAZ. In 1994, as he had moved to Moscow, he was appointed a First Deputy Director of it.

In January 1995, Patarkatsishvili was appointed First Deputy Director General of the Russian ORT TV channel for Finance. In March – May 2001, he was the Director General of the Russian TV6 channel.

In 2001, he moved to Georgia.

In June 2001, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office charged him with organizing an attempted escape from prison of Nikolay Glushkov, and in October 2002 – by default with an alleged grand fraud related to the AvtoVAZ case. In August 2006, Patarkatsishvili sold his 100% share of the Russian Kommersant editorial house to Alisher Usmanov.

Recently he has been reported to be linked to the purchase of West Ham United, an English Premier League football (soccer) team. He was also rumored to be linked to MSI (Media Sports Investment) investiment group, which has a partnership with the Brazilian football club Corinthians.