Bidzina Ivanishvili's lawyer Lasha Kalandadze has issued another statement regarding the Swiss bank Julius Baer.
Yesterday, it became known that Bidzina Ivanishvili sued Julius Baer after the US imposed sanctions, because the bank extended sanctions to the accounts of his family members and the companies they founded, which Ivanishvili believes is a violation of the law.
According to the lawyer, Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former CEO of the Co-Investment Fund, has a bank account at Julius Baer, whom Ivanishvili has been suing since the summer of 2023. As Ivanishvili's lawyer writes, the investigation has asked the relevant Swiss authority about the turnover of funds on Giorgi Bachiashvili's bank accounts, but the bank has not provided the aforementioned confidential information.
“As the public has learned, yesterday my client Bidzina Ivanishvili’s lawyer issued a statement regarding the Credit Suisse dispute and illegal actions by another Swiss bank, Julius Baer.
The circumstances outlined in the statement establish that my client faces additional barriers regarding his and his family members’ asset management, due to improper actions by Swiss bank Julius Baer (which received the majority of assets that survived Credit Suisse’s illegal actions).
Specifically, Julius Baer has been groundlessly restricting information about accounts (and transaction flows) for months, unnecessarily delaying the execution of transfer orders for my client and his family members without any justification, and has threatened to close personal bank accounts. Additionally, the bank is not fulfilling its contractual obligation regarding ensuring the timely fulfilment of obligations by hedge funds. Finally, it has effectively subjected Bidzina Ivanishvili’s and his family members’ bank accounts to sanctions through incorrect interpretation of so-called American sanctions.
It should be emphasized that the aforementioned Swiss bank also figures in the ongoing criminal case against defendant Giorgi Bachiashvili. Specifically, on July 3, 2023, and July 21, 2023, two requests for legal assistance were sent to the Federal Office of Justice of the Swiss Confederation. Based on these requests, complete information/documentation was requested regarding accounts held at Julius Baer by Giorgi Bachiashvili and a legal entity that also figures in the criminal case.
Unfortunately, without any explanation, the investigative body has not received any response regarding the requested information/documentation to date. Consequently, such information/documentation is not available in the criminal case. Based on the above, this specific fact from the criminal case and the totality of circumstances indicated in the statement give my client reasonable grounds to believe that another Swiss bank, Julius Baer, is acting as a mechanism/leverage for executing illegal and unfounded orders against Bidzina Ivanishvili.
This is evident both in illegal actions carried out directly against Bidzina Ivanishvili and his family members, as well as in effectively concealing information requested by investigative authorities regarding defendant Giorgi Bachiashvili’s case (in which Bidzina Ivanishvili is the victim),” the lawyer states.
For reference, Bidzina Ivanishvili is suing Julius Baer in court.
