TBILISI, November 25 – Georgia’s former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has won another round in his long-running legal fight with a Credit Suisse subsidiary, as a UK court ordered the bank to compensate him for losses linked to a major fraud case.
But although the United Kingdom’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upheld earlier rulings in the billionaire politician’s favor, senior members of his ruling Georgian Dream party say the real problem remains unchanged and that Ivanishvili still cannot access his assets abroad.
The court, which published its judgment on Monday, unanimously dismissed an appeal by CS Life, a Bermuda-based insurance company fully owned by Credit Suisse AG. The panel also rejected a cross-appeal filed by Ivanishvili and several co-claimants. In doing so, the court left intact previous decisions that found CS Life liable for damages after the bank’s former relationship manager, Patrice Lescaudron, was convicted in Switzerland of fraudulently managing client funds. Lescaudron was sentenced in 2018 and later died by suicide.
According to the judgment, the only modification concerns the exact dates used to calculate damages. The court ruled that compensation for the Meadowsweet policy should start from 31 October 2011 instead of 30 September 2011, and for the Sandcay policy from 30 November 2012 instead of 30 September 2012. The updated calculations will include any losses caused by unauthorized transactions made before the insurance policies formally took effect.
The dispute dates back a decade. Ivanishvili, his family members and two companies filed suit in Bermuda in 2017, accusing CS Life of breaching its contractual and fiduciary duties. In 2020 they also accused the company of supplying fraudulent misinformation. The Chief Justice of Bermuda ruled in their favor, a decision later upheld in part by the Bermuda Court of Appeal. CS Life appealed to the Privy Council, while the claimants filed a cross-appeal seeking reinstatement of the initial finding that they could claim damages for misinformation. Both efforts were rejected.
The Privy Council also reviewed arguments concerning Georgia’s statute of limitations. According to the ruling, the claim for fraudulent misinformation was dismissed because the plaintiffs did not prove Ivanishvili had knowledge of the statements in question, and because the claim was filed after the three-year limitation period under Georgian law.
The London court stressed that CS Life had responsibility for safeguarding the assets Ivanishvili transferred in 2011 and 2012 as premiums for two life-insurance policies. The assets were supposed to be held in separate accounts, with the option of discretionary or non-discretionary investment management.
Reactions in Tbilisi were immediate. Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili said the legal process is important but added that the case also includes a “political component” that must be resolved for the dispute to be considered fully settled.
MP Irakli Zarkua from the ruling GD echoed a common party message that the core issue remains enforcement. He argued that Ivanishvili still cannot access his assets because of what he described as influence from unspecified foreign actors. Zarkua repeated claims made by several GD figures in recent years, alleging that Switzerland’s banking collapse, the continued freeze on Ivanishvili’s funds, and sanctions imposed by the previous US administration are part of a wider attempt to pressure Ivanishvili into supporting a different foreign-policy course for Georgia. He did not present additional evidence to support the claim.
The ruling party regularly portrays Ivanishvili as the target of unfair treatment by Western institutions and former US officials, arguing that he is punished for refusing to lead Georgia into conflicts or geopolitical alignments that contradict national interests.
Opposition parties, on their part, have given a starkly different version of events, and accuse the ruling GD party of using Ivanishvili’s foreign disputes as a way to fuel anti-Western sentiment, seeing it rather as part of a wider ‘Russian’ PR effort.
