UK Privy Council Upholds Damages Award to Bidzina Ivanishvili Against Credit Suisse Life
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, also known as the London-based Supreme Court, has issued its final judgment in the case involving Bidzina Ivanishvili and Credit Suisse Life (Bermuda) Ltd.
The Privy Council unanimously dismissed Credit Suisse Life's appeal on all issues except the exact start dates for calculating damages and also rejected the plaintiffs' cross-appeal. The ruling upholds previous decisions requiring the Swiss bank to pay damages to Ivanishvili.
According to a press release from the High Court in London, the court clarified the commencement dates for the damages calculation. "Maintaining the approach of running the calculations from the last day of the month, the start date for the assessment of damages should be 31 October 2011 for the Meadowsweet policy and 30 November 2012 for the Sandcay policy. The damages awarded to the claimants should be recalculated accordingly," the statement said. Any losses resulting from unauthorized transactions during periods when premiums were due should be added to the assets' actual value on those dates.
The cross-appeal focused on the plaintiffs' misrepresentation claim, which they argued was wrongly dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The Privy Council considered whether the Court of Appeal correctly found that Ivanishvili lacked conscious knowledge of any misrepresentations and noted that the claim was also affected by Georgia's three-year statute of limitations.
Credit Suisse Life, a Bermuda-based insurance subsidiary of Credit Suisse AG, had advised Ivanishvili to transfer roughly US$750 million in cash and other assets to two life insurance policies in 2011 and 2012. The assets were to be held in a separate account, with Ivanishvili able to choose discretionary or non-discretionary management.
Ivanishvili discovered in 2015 that his Credit Suisse relationship manager, Patrice Lescaudron, had engaged in fraudulent activity with the policy assets. Lescaudron was prosecuted and convicted in Switzerland in 2018 and later died by suicide.
In 2017, Ivanishvili, his family members, and two companies that held the policies filed suit against Credit Suisse Life in Bermuda, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. They added a misrepresentation claim in 2020. The Chief Justice of Bermuda ruled in their favor, awarding damages, while the Court of Appeal later allowed Credit Suisse's appeal on the misrepresentation claim. The Privy Council has now delivered its final ruling.
