Honorary Chairman of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, plans to file a lawsuit against the Swiss bank Julius Baer.
As stated in the statement released by lawyer Lasha Kalandadze, the subject of the legal dispute is the fulfillment of obligations imposed by the bank and the demand for compensation for damages.
In addition, as noted in the information, political blackmail is taking place on the part of Julius Baer, “it subjected their bank accounts to the so-called American sanctions and Julius Baer is also, in one form or another, involved in political blackmail.”
“As is well known to interested parties, Bidzina Ivanishvili has been conducting a lawsuit against Credit Suisse/its related legal entities in various jurisdictions for almost 10 years. We would like to inform you that the dispute against Credit Suisse in Singapore has been successfully concluded. The case in Bermuda, which has been successfully concluded in the courts of first and second instance, will be considered in the court of final instance in the summer of 2025. The consideration of civil cases is also beginning in Switzerland (the subject of the dispute in Switzerland is the reimbursement of the amounts that could not be compensated by the disputes in Singapore and Bermuda). The public will be informed about the progress of the consideration of these cases in stages, if any.
We would like to remind interested parties that a large part of the assets that survived the illegal actions of Credit Suisse have been transferred to another Swiss bank (Julius Baer), including the accounts in which the funds received from hedge funds were supposed to be placed.
It should be noted that Julius Baer has been cooperating constructively for years, however, over the past year, the relationship has changed radically; For almost 6 months, Julius Baer restricted information about the accounts (flows) for funds received from hedge funds. There are numerous correspondences confirming this; Bidzina Ivanishvili explained to the bank that he had the right to receive information about funds received from hedge funds and demanded an explanation from the bank on what legal basis his guaranteed right was being restricted, but the bank delayed responding. Only after Julius Baer became convinced that Bidzina Ivanishvili was resorting to legal mechanisms to protect his rights, Julius Baer begin to fulfill its obligation to provide information.
Recently, however, the relationship has become more complicated. According to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the hedge funds (CarVal Credit Value Fund III, Promona Capital VIII, and TPG Opportunities Partners III) violated the deadlines for returning the funds. Julius Baer is, according to the agreement, obliged to take measures to ensure that the hedge funds fulfill their obligations on time. Julius Baer only reports that it sends letters to the hedge funds, but does not provide any explanation of the content of the letters, nor of the actions it is taking or will take to ensure that the hedge funds fulfill their obligations. Since Bidzina Ivanishvili cannot receive the legally guaranteed information or explanation, he believes that Julius Baer and the aforementioned hedge funds are acting in a coordinated manner against/to the detriment of his interests.
The relationship deteriorated in another direction as well. Initially, the bank refused to allow Bidzina Ivanishvili and several members of his family to fulfill the task of transferring the money. After Julius Baer received a notification that the beneficiaries were applying to legal mechanisms to protect their rights, the bank fulfilled the order to transfer the money, although it took almost a month to fulfill the stated obligation, and, as a rule, such an order is fulfilled in one day.
Then, in mid-December 2024, Julius Baer actually threatened to close the personal bank account of Bidzina Ivanishvili as a politically active person. The expediency of closing/cancelling the account on this basis has not been justified by Julius Baer. The bank did not even explain why the issue of canceling the personal account on the grounds of a politically active person was put on the agenda exactly at the end of 2024. Julius Baer did not close the personal account, although we considered it appropriate to inform the public about its actions.
Finally, Julius Baer, according to the beneficiaries, misinterpreted the so-called American sanctions and informed Bidzina Ivanishvili's family members and his companies that their bank accounts were subject to the so-called American sanctions.
The above-mentioned issues create a prerequisite for Bidzina Ivanishvili to assume/think that political blackmail is taking place on the part of Julius Baer and that Julius Baer is also involved in political blackmail in one way or another.
As for the legal side, Bidzina Ivanishvili intends, including with the involvement of foreign lawyers, to initiate legal procedures against Julius Baer to demand the fulfillment of obligations by the bank and receive compensation for the damages”, reads the statement.
