Tbilisi: Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Lawyer Lasha Kalandadze shared the updates on the Bidzina Ivanishvili vs Credit Suisse cases.
“The ongoing civil dispute in Singapore”
According to the decision of the Singapore court dated May 26, 2023, Credit Suisse Trust Limited was ordered to pay damages in the amount of 926 million USD in favor of Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family members.
The court ruled that Credit Suisse Trust Limited (the defendant) had breached its duty to protect the plaintiffs’ assets, thereby causing them damages.
It should be noted that the Singapore court ordered the defendant to pre-deposit the amount owed to the bank account specified by the plaintiffs.
The Singapore court in its decision also indicated that the $926 million awarded by the court should be deducted from the approximately $79,430,773 million paid by the bank to the plaintiffs in the settlement.
We would like to remind the interested parties that the mentioned amount is the one that the Bank of Switzerland. It had to be paid on the basis of the court decision and the payment of which was delayed for about three years.
When the Singapore court judge was interested in whether the information about the bank’s failure to fully comply with the Swiss court decision was true, the bank, as it seems that he felt the threat that this could negatively affect the inner conviction of the judge and activated the negotiation process and then paid the said 79,430,773 million US dollars based on the agreement reached.
The Singapore court further noted that the parties should ensure that the amount charged by the Bermuda court is in line with the amount charged by the Singapore court to avoid double liability for the same action; however, taking the above into consideration will not have any significant impact on Singapore of what court charged with money about the quantity.
An ongoing civil dispute in Bermuda
As known to the interested parties/public, a Bermuda First Instance Court ruling charged Credit Suisse/the legal entity/connected to the public, $607 million.
In addition, the court ordered the respondent to deposit the money in advance. At this moment, the amount (607 million US dollars) is also placed e. S. Escrow to the account.
Bermuda First Instance Court ruling has been appealed by the respondent/opposition party in the court of appeals. The substantive discussion of the case was completed in the subsequent instance and the decision will be made, presumably, by September this year.
Based on an analysis of the case materials and arguments from the parties, the Bermuda First Instance Court’s decision to pay a respondent $607 million is expected to remain unchanged.
In conclusion, Suisse Credit (its affiliated legal entities) is owed more than half a billion US dollars to Bidzina Ivanishvili, his family and related legal entities.
Ongoing civil and criminal cases in Switzerland
The civil case is about lending money to the bank. The claim involves remittance to the bank funds that have been illegal, in some cases ruled by a Swiss court, criminal offenses, and are not the subject/part of the ongoing Bermuda and Singapore disputes. By the end of this year, probably some progress should be made in this direction.
A criminal case is also underway against the bank. A week ago, lawyers in Switzerland received a prosecutor’s notice that a criminal case had been opened against the bank for organizational issues.
The prosecutor also informed the lawyers that the bank’s money laundering case was planned to be discontinued and the lawyers were given time to submit their positions.
Advocates believe there is a sufficient basis to launch a criminal case against the bank in terms of money laundering. Subsequently, arguments will be presented, and the matter mentioned by lawyers will, if necessary, be the subject of court.
The lawyers believe that the discontinuation of the production of the case is contrary to Swiss judicial practice and, if the court has to deal with the issue, the chances of success in giving the criminal case proceedings in the case of bank money laundering is quite high.
Finally, Credit Suisse’s illegal and, as said before, criminal actions with funds and assets it saved.
As it is well known to the stakeholders/public, a large portion of the bank’s assets recovered from Credit Suisse was transferred to another Swiss bank (Julius Baer), but the assets administrator of the Credit Suisse Trust, based on the island of Genes.
From March 2022, the Trust will change its attitude towards fulfilling its obligations: creating barriers and limiting beneficiaries’ access to assets. Initially, the failure of commitment was explained by: “Geopolitical Events in Eastern Europe”.
And then, he tried to avoid performing his duty with various artificial barriers.
The only way out of the current dispute is the termination of the Trust’s contract and dissolution of the Trust, but Credit Suisse’s Trust, in this case, has tried to stretch the issue with a made-up barrier.
In particular, the Trust pointed out that the court had to decide whether the dissolution of the Trust was against the interests of minors and future/unborn descendants. Although the outcome of the court decision was debatable to all parties, it was necessary to appeal it.
Credit Suisse Trust has tried its best to make court proceedings more difficult. In fact, a year later, the outcome was predictable and required only one court hearing; it was discussed in one hearing.
Genes Island Court ruled on March 24 2023 to the dissolution of the Trust for the benefit of the juveniles and future/unborn descendants.
Nevertheless, the Credit Suisse trust adheres to the termination of the Trust’s contract, the dissolution of the Trust and the distribution according to the wishes of the beneficiaries.
All the attorneys involved in the case are struggling to come up with legal explanations for the fabricated reasoning used by the bank’s Trust to dissolve the Trust and distribute assets. In their opinion, the bank’s trust reasons go beyond the legal framework; it goes into humour.
According to today’s bank, trusts block beneficiaries’ access to assets. However, advocates think their fantasies, for a reason, will have to break the Trust and divide the assets.
By the way, the agreement on the dissolution of the Trust and the text of the resolution on the distribution of assets is agreed between the parties.
We hope that an appeal to the court for the dissolution of the Trust and the distribution of assets will not be necessary. The bank trust will sign the already agreed documents and issue a resolution on the distribution of assets.
This will restore unrestricted access to assets, assets to which it has been limited from March 2022: Credit Suisse Trust says, “from geopolitical events in Eastern Europe,” statement said.
