The fallen giant Credit Suisse, a global investment bank and financial services firm, was asked by a Singapore Court to pay billionaire and former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili a total of $926 million for failing in its duty to safeguard his assets.
The latest blow to the banking giant, Credit Suisse, based in Switzerland comes, after it was bought by its rival UBS, in March to prevent a financial collapse following a series of scandals.
Credit Suisse collapsed in March 2023 following several scandals. The firm was then bought by its rival in Switzerland UBS for about $3.3 billion in a deal approved by Swiss regulators without shareholder approval.
Earlier reports had stated that UBS plans to sell off and downsize parts of Credit Suisse in the process.
In the aftermath of Credit Suisse’s collapse, former Georgia Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili had sued the bank in Singapore, New Zealand and Bermuda, blaming the bank for fraudulent mismanagement that led to the billionaire suffering investment losses.
In Singapore, a lawsuit was filed against Credit Suisse’s Singapore subsidiary, Credit Suisse Trust Ltd. In a decision released Friday, the Singapore International Commercial Court ruled in favour of Ivanishvili and ordered him compensated.
“That amount as presently calculated to the date of trial is USD 926 million,” international judge Patricia Bergin said in a decision. Bergin added that as a result of a settlement, the amount “should be reduced by USD 79,430,773.”
Credit Suisse said in a statement it will appeal the decision.
“The judgment published today is wrong and poses very significant legal issues,” it said.
The court said Credit Suisse failed in its duty to safeguard Ivanishvili’s assets from fraudulent transactions by his relationship manager Patrice Lescaudron, who was sentenced by Swiss authorities to five years in prison in 2018 on charges of fraud and forgery.
Credit Suisse had approached Ivanishvili in late 2004 to offer him wealth-management services just after the billionaire and his business partner sold a metallurgical complex in Russia for $1.6 billion.
Ivanishvili agreed to deposit more than $1 billion into a trust set up in 2005 for inheritance planning and asset holding, the judgement said.
Lescaudron, however, misappropriated millions of dollars over the next nine years until 2015 when his fraud was exposed, according to the judgement.
(With inputs from AFP)
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Updated: 26 May 2023, 06:14 PM IST
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