Credit Suisse Fights $600 Million Damages Award Over Mishandling of Rogue Banker

The lawyer for a Credit Suisse Group AG unit fighting a $600 million damages award over its mishandling of a former star banker turned fraudster suggested the size of the ruling exaggerates what the returns would have been if the money had been invested properly.

A Bermuda judge awarded the damages to bank client and Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in March after ruling that Credit Suisse Life had turned a “blind eye” to convicted fraudster Patrice Lescaudron’s misuse of Ivanishvili’s money. The sum was calculated, based on input from both sides’ accounting experts, to include assets Lescaudron misused or transferred to other clients as well as the returns the money would’ve made.