A billionaire Georgian is hoping to win the third of a trio of court cases he brought against units of Credit Suisse bank, after victory in a Bermuda court and defeat in New Zealand.

Bidzina Ivanishvili is suing CS Trust (Singapore) Ltd for at least $800 million in damages and lost income, arguing the bank should have spotted much earlier the fraud perpetrated by former Credit Suisse banker Patrice Lescaudron.

His lawyers argue that Credit Suisse Group AG’s Singapore trust unit failed in a basic duty to safeguard his assets.

Further, although the alleged losses were put at about $818.2 million, his lawyers opened their case on Monday by stating that actually, as much as some $1.27 billion had been placed under the custodianship of the Credit Suisse Trust in 2005, according to Reuters.

Credit Suisse continues to argue, as it did in Bermuda, that the bank and its subsidiaries were in the dark about the fraud scheme perpetrated by its employee, who was subsequently convicted for fraud.

According to Bloomberg, it also claimed the case should have been heard in Switzerland and not Singapore.

Mr Ivanishvili was awarded damages of more than $600 million in the Bermuda dispute, which is being put into escrow pending the outcome of an appeal.

The New Zealand High Court dismissed Mr Ivanishvili’s case there in 2018, accepting the bank’s argument that Switzerland was the correct jurisdiction for the dispute to be heard.

Mr Ivanishvili testified by video link on Monday, as he had done during the Bermuda case.

He said he placed his money with the bank and its banking unit because he thought they were the experts at protecting his family assets.