Lawyer of Bidzina Ivanishvili made a statement on the dispute with Credit Suisse banking group

Victor Kipiani, the lawyer of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, a senior partner of MKD law firm, has published a statement on the dispute with Credit Suisse banking group. 

"The lawyer writes that so far they have avoided commenting on the dispute in Georgian media, but this time this desire and necessity was conditioned by the fact that the Mtavari Channel has provided the public with distorted information."

We offer the statement in full:

"The public is well aware that as a lawyer and senior partner of MKD law firm I am coordinating Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili's ongoing litigation against Credit Suisse Banking Group in several jurisdictions. Several articles on the dispute have already been published abroad, which has circulated in Georgia. I will not bother the reader with extra details. This time, in response to some recent assessments on the issue, I would like to briefly point out a few circumstances.

So far, we have avoided commenting on the Credit Suisse Banking Group dispute in the Georgian media. We have done so deliberately, as any such comment - unintentionally from us, or perhaps even deliberately from others - could have been misinterpreted. This time, the desire and need for our comment was due to Mtavari Channel providing the public with information that was distorted in content. This biased and self-serving coverage of the facts formed the basis of the very broad interpretation we have already mentioned. Therefore, we thought it appropriate to make some necessary clarifications in order to objectively inform the public.

Mr. Ivanishvili's recent global dispute with the aforementioned banking group coincided with a number of other highly questionable facts. Notably, none of them have anything to do with this dispute, nor with the Credit Suisse organization.

In particular, from March to mid-April of this year, Mr. Ivanishvili had some delays in the timely and unimpeded movement of works of art from London and New York. The resulting delays, which were relatively easy to overcome in New York and more difficult in London, were eventually resolved through legal and other channels. The timing also coincided with the complication of getting the new helicopter bought by Mr. Ivanishvili to Georgia in exchange for supplying the old one to Germany. When it was supposed to be in Tbilisi in early March, it was actually brought in mid-April, although this artificially created problem was legally resolved by Mr. Ivanishvili.

Mr. Ivanishvili's position is that all disagreements with Credit Suisse should also be solved legally, and progress in this regard is already visible. The success achieved by the banking group in Bermuda is already known to the general public; there are also all conditions for the success of the process, which will take place in Singapore this September. However, in parallel with the trials in Bermuda and Singapore, a new type of violation of the rights of its important client by the banking group, which was reflected in the refusal of the client to make timely and proper transfers to the trust management of the bank. Moreover, no reasoned explanations followed the failure to execute the orders, and the recent correspondence of Mr. Ivanishvili's representatives on the trust management of the banking group remained unanswered for several weeks. Moreover, the disagreement over the trust is still unresolved. It is this attitude on the part of the trust that led to another lawsuit against Mr. Ivanishvili's Credit Suisse trust, this time under the jurisdiction of Guernsey. It is noteworthy that there is no connection between the previous lawsuits against the Credit Suisse banking group and the mentioned bank transfer delays: while in the first case there is a dispute about the damages suffered by Mr. Ivanishvili as a result of the claim for compensation for those damages, the transfers from the bank trust refer to totally discarded assets.

As in the case of a work of art or a helicopter, the dispute with the trust is resolved in court using all the means provided by the relevant legislation. It is the action of law and legislation that has been Mr. Ivanishvili's attitude to this day and will remain so in the future. It is clear that this firmness and immunity gives nothing to the banking group either legally or reputationally.

At the same time, if one or another issue raised here requires additional assessment and comments going beyond legal norms, Mr. Ivanishvili will do it himself through specially scheduled press-conferences. Until then, there will be a call to stay within the legal norms in any assessments and not to miss them.

In addition to what I have said, I would also like to convey my personal position. I well understand the emotional background associated with the proceedings of such large-scale cases involving Mr. Ivanishvili. Nevertheless, I urge the public to refrain from emotional assessment, because emotional reasoning has never been helpful. Instead, reasoning using only factual information and balanced laws and regulations is the only proper way to judge any issue of broad public interest.

Speaking of priorities, I would like to say the following in a few words: our country has experienced a very difficult time, as well as a crossroads of very complex geopolitical processes. There are a number of challenges that pose a real threat to the country's stable and predictable development. I often have to speak about all of this publicly, this time in a different role. It is a personal assessment of what is being done under the current government to create a safe and stable environment for the country's development and to overcome existing challenges. At the same time, any question to Mr. Ivanishvili about his personal position regarding the development of our country, this position is related to the interests of Georgia and its society. "My constant communication with Mr. Ivanishvili as a result of my advocacy activity gives me every reason to declare that even the slightest doubts about his position and attitude towards the national interests of our country are absolutely unfounded," Victor Kipiani said in his statement.