A Credit Suisse unit was ordered to pay billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili what is set be hundreds of millions of dollars by a Singapore court, according to Bloomberg.

The court put damages at $926m, minus deductions for an earlier settlement. The amount will be further revised down “to ensure there is no double recovery” after a Bermuda court last year awarded Ivanishvili more than $600m in damages in that case.

Singapore-based Credit Suisse Trust breached its duty to the plaintiffs in failing to safeguard the trust assets, according to the ruling judgment published Friday.

“The judgment published today is wrong and poses very significant legal issues,” a spokesperson for Credit Suisse said in an emailed statement, adding the trust intends to “vigorously pursue an appeal”.

A spokesperson for Ivanishvili was not immediately available to comment.

The judgment highlighted the trust’s failure to prevent private banker Patrice Lescaudron from having any further access to the Trust assets. Lescaudron was convicted in 2018 for running a fraudulent scheme in which he took money from Ivanishvili’s accounts to try to mask growing losses in other Russian clients’ portfolios.

The Bermuda judge who ruled in Ivanishvili’s favour last year said Credit that Suisse’s life insurance unit turned a blind eye to Lescaudron’s wrongdoing. A separate criminal investigation by Geneva prosecutors into whether Credit Suisse bears responsibility for Lescaudron’s fraud continues.

source: IPN