In a decision dated 16 October 2020 the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (the FCC) upheld the decision of the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (the FoJ) (see link to that 2019 decision) and ordered that all frozen funds remaining in Stanford International Bank Limited’s (In Liquidation) accounts at Societe Generale Private Banking (Suisse) SA’s (Soc Gen) be released to the US authorities.

This decision and related decisions, providing for the release of amounts held at Soc Gen in the name of related entities, of the FCC should allow for the release of all remaining Swiss frozen funds totalling approximately US$152 million.  In addition we are working with the Bank of Antigua liquidators to recover amounts totalling approximately US$16 million.  These amounts will be distributed to the victims by both the US Receivers Estate and the Antiguan Liquidation estate in accordance with the Cross Border protocol and Settlement Agreement.

Please note that Soc Gen has one final appeal possibility if it decides to appeal this decision to Switzerland’s highest court, the Federal Supreme Court.
We are awaiting news as to whether or not Soc Gen will be appealing this decision and will provide a further update once that is known.

The Joint Liquidators, via Swiss counsel, made arguments to the FCC in support of the request to handover funds to the US authorities.  The Joint Liquidators are hopeful that this decision will finally allow for the release of the Swiss frozen funds so that they can be distributed to the victims.

We will post a link to the full FCC decision,translated into English, once it becomes public.