The major bank Credit Suisse has again been sentenced to pay high damages to the Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The former prime minister had already won in court in Bermuda.
In the case of former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, the International Commercial Court in Singapore found breaches of duty at Credit Suisse. According to the judgment published today, Ivanishvili lost $926 million due to mistakes made by the major Swiss bank. Credit Suisse is obliged to compensate the billionaire for the damage.
Credit Suisse wants to take action against the verdict
The amount must still be reduced by $79.4 million as part of a settlement. At the same time, the amounts determined in parallel proceedings in Bermuda must also be included in the calculation so that there are no duplicate claims, according to the court.
Credit Suisse plans to appeal the verdict. In a first reaction, the Swiss bank described the judgment against its subsidiary as “wrong”. It raises “far-reaching legal questions”. The verdict is not yet final and can be appealed, which Credit Suisse Trust Limited intends to do “resolutely”.
Former consultant had cheated clients
The legal dispute between Ivanishvili and the bank has been going on for years. The former Georgian head of government and billionaire was a customer of Credit Suisse from 2005 to 2015 and had invested large sums of his assets through the bank. According to earlier reports, he lost $1.27 billion as a result of the behavior of his fraudulent Geneva client advisor Patrice Lescaudron. Over a period of eight years, he forged the signatures of former customers, including Ivanishvili.
The advisor was fired from Credit Suisse in 2015. In 2018, a Swiss court sentenced Lescaudron to five years in prison and to pay $130 million. He also admitted to hiding piling losses and raking in tens of millions of francs himself. The bank was classified as a victim in the proceedings. Lescaudron took his own life in the summer of 2020.
Ivanishvili had already sued Credit Suisse in Bermuda, where some of his assets were also held. The court there came to the conclusion at the end of March that the former consultant had not been checked enough by the bank. It ordered the major bank to pay $607 million in damages. Credit Suisse also appealed against this verdict.