Ivanishvili's Lawyer Releases Statement on Dispute with Credit Suisse Banking Group
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Switzerland-based investment banking company Credit Suisse is said to delay the payment of around $600 million to Ivanishvili, which he won in a court settlement.
On May 6 Cision reported about the new lawsuit against Credit Suisse in Guernsey Court, alleging significant failures and political pressure by the CS trustee. When requested a disbursement by Ivanishvili, ‘made unreasonable requests for information and referenced the geopolitical environment in Eastern Europe as justification for the delay’.
The PR company said Ivanishvili was planning series of meetings with the media internationally to “break down the myths associated with so-called untainted image of Swiss banking and the judiciary.” It also explained that Ivanishvili holds dual Georgian and French nationality and that he cannot be in any way related to the list of sanctioned organizations and individuals.
The top court of Bermuda ruled in March that Ivanishvili and his family are due damages ‘substantially in excess of $500 million’ from Credit Suisse’s insurance arm. Credit Suisse said in its recent report that the judgment is expected to be in the amount of approximately $600 million. The CS in March said the judgment is not yet final and is subject to appeal, which it intends to ‘vigorously pursue’.
GD chair Irakli Kobakhidze said the bank unfairly quoted ‘geopolitical circumstances’ to justify the delay. According to him, such reasoning by the Swiss company comes as one part of the coordinated action from abroad, with other elements being Ukraine’s decision to recall the Ambassador from Tbilisi, and the recent release of audiotape purporting to show Ivanishvili having business dealings with sanctioned Russian tycoon, Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Bidzina Ivanishvili's lawyer, Victor Kipiani, senior partner of the law firm MKD, released a statement on the dispute against the Credit Suisse banking group. He emphasized that this comment was conditioned by the necessity to inform public objectively following the ‘distorted information’ provided by Main Channel to the public, which created the need to clarify some circumstances.
According to the statement Ivanishvili's recent global dispute with the above-mentioned banking group has coincided with a number of other very dubious facts, however none of them have anything to do with this dispute or with the organization Credit Suisse.
“In particular, from March to mid-April this year, Mr. Ivanishvili had some delays in the timely and unimpeded movement of works of art from London and New York. The resulting delays - which were relatively easily overcome in New York and more difficult in London - were eventually resolved through legal and other channels. Also, the time coincides with the complication of bringing a new helicopter to Georgia, purchased by Mr. Ivanishvili in exchange for the delivery of the old one to Germany. When it was supposed to be in Tbilisi in early March, it was actually delivered mid-April, although this artificially created problem was also legally resolved.”
According to Kipiani, Ivanishvili's position is that all disagreements with Credit Suisse should also be resolved through legal means, and progress in this regard is already noticeable. The success achieved with the banking group at Bermuda is already known to the public; There are also all the conditions for success in the process to be held in Singapore in September this year. However, in parallel with the processes in Bermuda and Singapore, a new type of violation of the rights of important client by the banking group appeared, which was reflected in the refusal to the client to perform timely and proper transfers on the bank trust. Moreover, the non-fulfillment of the tasks was not followed by any substantiated explanation, and the recent correspondence from Mr. Ivanishvili's representatives on the banking group's trust was unanswered for several weeks. Disagreement over the trust has not yet been resolved. It was this attitude on the part of the trust that led to Mr. Ivanishvili's another lawsuit against ‘Credit Suisse’ trust, this time at Guernsey's Court.
Lawyer also emphasized that there was no connection between previous lawsuits against this banking group and their delays of mentioned transfers - if in the first case the dispute is over the damage suffered by Ivanishvili caused by heavy structural violations is swiss banks operations - which he is demanding to get reimbursed for; while the transfers from banking trustee refer to different assets.
Kipiani concluded that all these cases shall be settled in legal manner, which Ivanishvili has always been referring to and will continue so in the future. ‘It is clear that this resilience and inviolability does nothing for the banking group, neither legally nor reputably.’ He also noted that additional assessment and comment beyond the norms of law will be addressed by Ivanishvili himself specially planned press conferences.
From the personal standpoint, he urged the the public to refrain from evaluating based on emotions, reasoning using only factual, balanced information and law is the only correct way to judge any issue of broad public interest.
“Our country has faced a very difficult time, as well as a crossroads of very difficult geopolitical processes. There are a number of challenges that pose a real threat to the stable and predictable development of the country. It is my personal assessment that maximum is being done under the current government to create a safe and stable development environment for the country, to overcome the existing challenges. Any question to Mr. Ivanishvili about his position on the development of our country is related to the interests of the development of Georgia and its society.”
