Credit Suisse Group AG says it has paid $210 million to date to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in a long-running legal saga, Bloomberg reports.
The bank has paid the sum “over time for the proceedings across all the plaintiff’s accounts,” a spokesperson for the Swiss lender said by email. The statement didn’t reveal a figure for the ongoing trial in Singapore, or give a time frame for when the money was paid out in a case of fraud that was only detected in 2015.
“The statement is the most detailed admission yet of how much the legal wrangling is costing Credit Suisse globally and emerged amid closing arguments at a two-day hearing in Singapore, which will mark the end of a trial that began in September.
Georgian tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili sued the bank’s trust unit for $800 million in damages and lost income he said he would have made over the years if his money had been safely invested. Patrice Lescaudron was convicted in 2018 for fraud over a scheme he ran to take money from Ivanishvili’s accounts to cover growing losses among other clients’ portfolios.
Credit Suisse Trust has consistently argued that its responsibility was limited to administration of the assets belonging to Bidzina Ivanishvili and that it was the tycoon, or his Georgian business adviser, who called the shots on investment decisions and should be liable for any losses. Lescaudron was a lone wolf who hid his crimes from colleagues, according to the bank,” reads the information.
