Credit Suisse Loses Trial With SoftBank Over Greensill Trades

(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp. successfully defended itself in a lawsuit against Credit Suisse over a restructuring deal that left investors in the Swiss lender’s funds up to $440 million out of pocket.

The London hearing includes a series of transactions involving the now-defunct Greensill Capital and the trade finance firm’s involvement with Katerra Inc., a US-based construction company in which SoftBank is a major investor. He examined the way he restructured his relationship with.

Credit Suisse filed a lawsuit against SoftBank, accusing it of preparing the restructuring in 2020 so that it could withdraw its own money from the firm, knowing full well that Greensill, which was already in free fall, would not be able to pay its debt to Credit Suisse.

On Wednesday, Judge Robert Miles accused Lex Greensill of concealing from Credit Suisse officials what he called the “true position” on the restructuring.

UBS Group AG was pursuing the London claim on behalf of its former Swiss rival in a bid to rescue funds from investors stuck in supply chain finance vehicles.

SoftBank countered that the Credit Suisse lawsuit was always an attempt to take responsibility for “its own poor investment decisions.” Softbank’s lawyers argued that the $440 million fund was provided by the Vision Fund on the grounds that it would be used to repay Credit Suisse banknotes.

Greensill collapsed a few months after the SoftBank deal when the Japanese group refused to provide a last-minute $1.5 billion bridge loan. Credit Suisse then froze and began liquidating $10 billion of funds that had purchased products from Greensill Capital.

Greensill’s demise was one of several major scandals that shook confidence in the Swiss lender, causing customers losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and ultimately leading to the company’s forced takeover by UBS.

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