Credit Suisse said in March that the banker, who worked in Moscow but was based in Geneva at the time of his January arrest, was a lone wolf who “concealed his deceptions from colleagues and that this is to the best of its knowledge an individual case.” The clients who’ve brought a case against him -- Ivanishvili and two Russians -- disagree.
“This type of management, catastrophic and leading inevitably to enormous losses for its clients, could not have been achieved without the help of multiple departments at the core of the bank, as well as by the participation, active or passive, or at least with the full knowledge, of numerous people,” Ivanishvili’s lawyers wrote in a filing with prosecutors on Jan. 27.
They went one step further in March, accusing Credit Suisse of money laundering for failing to put adequate procedures in place to prevent the cleaning of dirty money. The Zurich-based bank said it is cooperating with prosecutors and put the blame on its former employee.
Top Matrix Holding Ltd., an investment vehicle owned by former Russian senator Vitaly Malkin, in March filed the fourth complaint against the banker for criminal mismanagement, abuse of confidence and fraud. A lawyer for Malkin, a former business associate of Ivanishvili, didn’t have an immediate comment. The jailed banker’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.