Singapore (Common Wealth ) _ An ex-Georgian prime minister was sentenced by a Singapore court on Friday to pay Credit Suisse US$926 million for failing to protect his assets, dealing the defunct banking behemoth yet another setback.
In March, UBS, Credit Suisse’s main competitor in Switzerland, acquired it to avert a financial crisis brought on by a string of scandals.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former leader of Georgia, sued Credit Suisse in Singapore, New Zealand, and Bermuda, accusing the bank of engaging in fraudulent mismanagement that cost the billionaire investor losses on his investments.
Credit Suisse Trust Ltd., a subsidiary of the Credit Suisse Group in Singapore, was the target of the case in the city-state.
The Singapore International Commercial Court decided in Ivanishvili’s favor and ordered him to be reimbursed in a ruling made public on Friday.
International judge Patricia Bergin determined that the sum was USD 926 million as of the trial’s start date.
According to a settlement, the sum “should be reduced by USD 79,430,773,” Bergin continued.
Credit Suisse declared in a statement that it will challenge the judgment.
It stated that “the judgment published today is incorrect and raises very important legal issues.”
The court found that Credit Suisse had a responsibility to protect Ivanishvili’s assets from forgeries and fraud committed by his relationship manager Patrice Lescaudron, who was given a five-year prison sentence by Swiss authorities in 2018.
Just after the billionaire and his business partner sold a metallurgical complex in Russia for US$1.6 billion, Credit Suisse contacted Ivanishvili in late 2004 to offer him wealth management services.
Ivanishvili consented to contribute more than $1 billion to a trust established in 2005 for estate planning and asset holding, according to the ruling.
But during the following nine years, until his fraud was discovered in 2015, Lescaudron embezzled millions of dollars, according to the ruling.
