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.
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.”