The lawyer spoke about the problems of businessmen from the Russian Federation in recovering money from Credit Suisse in a fraud case

Lawyer of the EPAM bureau Andrey Bastrakov at the “Kommersant” conference “Criminal and subsidiary liability of management and owners-2023” spoke about the risks of doing international business in the new realities. As an example, he cited an attempt by Russian entrepreneurs to seize money from the Swiss bank Credit Suisse in a 2016 fraud case. According to him, one of the businessmen was denied payment because of the bribery of his namesake.

Mr. Bastrakov did not give the names of the entrepreneurs who are suing Credit Suisse. The criminal case concerns the fraud of the ex-bank manager Patrice Lescaudron, who managed the assets of the bank’s clients from the countries of the former USSR in the amount of $1.6 billion. As stated, among his clients were the ex-Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, the former senator from Buryatia Vitaly Malkin and Russian entrepreneurs .

The lawyer said that litigation is still ongoing. “Our businessmen are trying to get monetary compensation from the bank, since the money was lost in the bank. They have been suing for a long time,” said Mr. Bastrakov.

According to the lawyer, recently a Credit Suisse client from Russia was refused to give money because he was allegedly involved in bribery. However, the justification included a publication from “not the most famous Russian media on the Internet” about a namesake, an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who “got caught on a bribe in the Moscow region.” According to Mr. Bastrakov, a photo of this person was attached to the publication, and he does not look like someone who is suing a bank. “This is already beyond good and evil,” the lawyer said.

Patrice Lescaudron has been with Credit Suisse since 2004. In 2016, he was accused of fraud, and in 2018 sentenced to five years in prison. In 2020, he committed suicide. Patrice Lescaudron admitted that he transferred funds from the accounts of the ex-Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Russian Senator Vitaly Malkin and two other Russians. According to information Forbes, it was about the founders of Ukhtagazstroy Zurab Lysov and Sergey Egorov. How reported Media, Mr. Malkin in the summer of 2022 filed a lawsuit against Credit Suisse due to losses of 500 million Swiss francs. According to Le Figaro, he decided to go to court after Mr. Ivanishvili managed to win his case in the Supreme Court of Bermuda.

Leonid Uvarchev