Page 10 - GEORptDec19

It’s the first time Ivanishvili, often regarded as Georgia’s de facto leader, who had at least $800mn of his $5.4bn fortune tied up with Credit Suisse, has discussed the case in public.
A Geneva court ruled in 2018 that a private banker working for Credit Suisse caused $144mn of financial losses to Ivanishvili and Vitaly Malkin and illegally derived a benefit of $30mn.
During the trial, Credit Suisse executives repeatedly stated that the bank had no information about the cited offences, which had been taking place for years, and that the fraudulent scheme was only that of the arrested private banker. Ivanishvili told Bloomberg that he does not believe that the scheme would have been possible without the direct involvement of Credit Suisse management.
Patrice Lescaudron was one of the most active private bankers at Credit Suisse. He initially worked in the Moscow office of Swiss pharmaceutical company Yves Rocher during the 1990s, married in Russia and learned Russian, and in 2004 moved to Credit Suisse. Lescaudron soon became the personal banker to Russian clients due to his knowledge of Russian. Lescaudron pleaded guilty at the start of the trial. He said Ivanishvili's signature had been falsified since 2008.
2.5​ ​Georgia’s government officially allows Anaklia consortium more time to find investors
Georgia’s government “gave a last chance” to Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) to find financial and strategic investors and keep its Black Sea deep sea port project running, but at the same time an influential politician of the Georgian Dream party, Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze, used the opportunity to question ADC’s capacity to carry out a project of such major importance to Georgia’s economy.
“I very much doubt that Mamuka Khazaradze [the leader of ADC, TBC bank co-founder and more recently a political rival of Georgian Dream] will be able to carry out this project. He has neither the financial resources nor the mental capacity to do so, ”Kaladze said in scathing remarks.
The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia officially announced that it is giving the consortium developing the Anaklia port under a public private partnership the opportunity to fully utilise the resources at its disposal to raise its own capital and reach an agreement with international banks in writing, with the deadline set as the end of 2019. ADC was supposed, under existing agreements, to meet the financing conditions by October 15.
According to the statement of the ministry, "although the Consortium has partly failed to fulfil its obligation regarding the capital filling, while the obligation related to the agreement with banks has not been fulfilled at all, which gives the Georgian Government the right to terminate the agreement immediately, the Georgian Government considers the importance of the Anaklia Port Construction Project and declines to exercise its right to terminate the contract”.
10​ GEORGIA Country Report​ December 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com