Pictet has been involved in a legal wrangle with a Saudi oil baron for years. His bid to claim hundreds of millions from the Geneva-based bank has now received a major boost in the U.S.
The law case has been fought with all measures available for a good five years. Now it has been become clear that Rasheed al Rushaid, the Saudi businessman, can have his claim heard at a New York court. An appeal court has decided as much last week, according to a report by the «New York Law Journal».
Al Rushaid, the owner of the namesake company empire, claims $350 million from Pictet, accusing it of having helped former employees to wash bribe money through dummy companies on the British Virgin Islands in the years from 2006 through 2008.
Briberies, Money-Laundering, Dummy Firms
Al Rushaid wanted a New York court to accept the suit because $4 million had been moved through Pictet's correspondent accounts at Citibank, HSBC and further U.S. banks and then further on to Pictet in Geneva. And the advantage of having the case investigated in the New York is that it won't be prescribed.
The appeals court determined that the Pictet correspondent accounts in the U.S. played an important role in the money-laundering system. Pictet had argued against on grounds that the role of these accounts had been passive.
Pictet: Unfounded Accusations
Asked for a comment by finews.ch, the Geneva-based bank said that the accusations brought against the bank by al Rushaid in New York in a revised form of the original complaint of August 26, 2011, were unfounded and without substance. Pictet firmly rejects having done anything wrong and said it will use all legal means to defend itself against the accusation.
