Georgian billionaire threatens to sue Julius Bär bank

Georgian billionaire Ivanichvili wants to sue Julius Baer Keystone-SDA

After a long legal battle with Credit Suisse, billionaire Bidzina Ivanichvili is now targeting Julius Bär, accusing the Swiss private bank of political blackmail.

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The leader of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party says he intends to take legal action against the wealth manager.

His lawyers accuse the bank of withholding information and of delays in executing money transfers. A large part of the assets recovered by Ivanichvili after court rulings against Credit Suisse were transferred to Julius Bär, according to a statement issued by the Georgian law firm Metric earlier this week.

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According to the firm, relations between the Zurich bank and the billionaire have deteriorated in recent months.

Ivanchvili’s lawyers accuse Julius Bär of withholding information about the accounts of the billionaire and short-lived Georgian prime minister between 2011 and 2012. They also accuse the bank of threatening to terminate the business relationship with Ivanchvili on the grounds of his status as a politically exposed person (PEP).

Contacted by the AWP news agency on Thursday, Julius Bär declined to comment on the case. “As a matter of principle, we do not comment on the supposed or actual affairs of our clients,” said a spokeswoman, after the online portal Tippinpoint reported the threat of legal action.

‘Politically exposed’

According to Metric, the bank failed to take action after various hedge funds failed to meet fund repayment deadlines. The Georgian billionaire now suspects the asset manager of acting “in a coordinated manner” with hedge funds to his detriment.

In December 2024, the bank then reportedly threatened to close Ivanishvili’s accounts due to his status as a politically exposed person. Julius Baer also allegedly interpreted US sanctions incorrectly and to its own advantage, stating that the billionaire and his family would be subject to them.

For the record, Ivanichvili spent ten years fighting Credit Suisse in various jurisdictions around the world. The billionaire, who made his fortune in Russia and neighbouring countries in the metallurgy industry after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was a client of an advisor to the former number-two Swiss bank in Geneva, who had embezzled funds for which he was responsible.

While the former advisor, who was sentenced in 2018 to five years’ imprisonment, committed suicide in 2020, Credit Suisse, now a UBS entity, was forced in 2023 by the Bermudan courts to pay Ivanichvili $600 million. A Singapore court awarded the billionaire $740 million.

The civil proceedings under consideration in Switzerland should enable Ivanichvili to recover funds that were not included in the Singapore and Bermuda trials, according to Metric.

Having sold all his assets in Russia in 2011, Ivanishvili, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine in 2012 at $6.4 billion, entered politics in Georgia by creating the Georgian Dream coalition of parties. The latter declared itself the winner of the controversial October 2024 parliamentary elections.

Although Ivanishvili holds no official position in the Georgian state, he has been regarded as the government’s real strongman for years. Having instituted ‘informal governance’, he chooses the ministers and has given the country a pro-Russian orientation, taking measures hostile to the pro-European opposition and refusing to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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