CS trial for convicted ex-client adviser in Singapore begins
The trial of an ex-CS customer advisor begins in Singapore. This is said to have diverted rich customer amounts in the millions.
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the essentials in brief
- The trial of a former CS customer advisor begins in Singapore.
- Patrice Lescaudron is said to have diverted money from rich customers – he took his own life.
- The plaintiff is former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Credit Suisse has not let go of the fraudulent machinations of a customer advisor who was eliminated years ago. After the big bank was sentenced to millions in damages in Bermuda in this matter, a trial is now beginning in Singapore.
Starting next Monday, there will be public hearings before the International Commercial Court in Singapore for around three weeks.
The plaintiff is former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. Credit Suisse Trust Limited in Singapore is accused. A trust is a fiduciary that also has a certain degree of independence from tax considerations, but the bottom line is that it also belongs to the big bank.
Sentenced to several years in prison
The question of whether the trust agreement has failed is to be clarified in court. A verdict is expected in early 2023.
What the fraud is about: Ivanishvili was looked after at CS from Geneva by customer advisor Patrice Lescaudron. By 2011 at the latest, Lescaudron had diverted hundreds of millions of euros from the assets he managed – including Ivanishvili. It is apparently also about concealing losses in other customer accounts.
In 2015, Lescaudron was eliminated at Credit Suisse without notice. In 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison and $130 million in a criminal trial in Geneva. In the summer of 2020 he took his own life.
Ivanishvili has also sued Credit Suisse itself – in Bermuda and Singapore. At a court in Bermuda at the end of March, the judges concluded that Lescaudron had been under-controlled by the bank.
The court is demanding $607 million in damages from the big bank. According to the court ruling, the former Georgian prime minister and billionaire had invested over $1 billion through CS as of 2005.
The big bank has announced that it will appeal the verdict. The bank recently said that Lescaudron acted alone and kept his machinations secret. “All investigations by the bank, Finma and the criminal authorities into this matter since 2015 have shown that the former customer advisor was not supported in his criminal activities by other employees.”
After the verdict in Bermuda, however, CS increased the legal cases reported by around CHF 700 million.
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