Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Credit Suisse ordered to pay Georgian billionaire $743 million

Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse said in May that the judgement was “wrong and poses very significant legal issues”. © Keystone / Michael Buholzer

A Credit Suisse unit has been ordered to pay billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili $742.7 million (CHF665 million) by a Singapore court as it confirmed that the bank’s trust had failed to safeguard its client’s assets. 

The amount was revised down from the $926 million assessed by the court in May. At the time, the court said the final award would be reduced to avoid double recovery after a Bermuda court last year awarded Ivanishvili more than $600 million in damages in that case.

The ruling, the first since the troubled bank was taken over by rival Swiss bank UBS in June, is the latest development in the Singapore chapter of the long-running saga that’s spanned three continents. The case revolves around a private banker, Patrice Lescaudron, who was convicted in 2018 for running a fraudulent scheme in which he took money from Ivanishvili’s accounts to try and mask growing losses in Russian clients’ portfolios. 

+ What will UBS do with Credit Suisse domestic bank?

Credit Suisse said in May that the judgement was “wrong and poses very significant legal issues”. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the bank said “The Singapore Court’s judgment is not final and, as already communicated in May 2023, Credit Suisse Trust Limited will pursue an appeal.” 

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

News

Train entering tunnel

More

Rhaetian Railway celebrates record figures

This content was published on 2023 was a record year for the Rhaetian Railway in several respects. Never before has the narrow-gauge railway in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, transported so many passengers and cars.

Read more: Rhaetian Railway celebrates record figures

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR