Credit Suisse Investors Lose Bid to Litigate Claims in US Court

Credit Suisse Group AG investors can’t keep their proposed class action against the failed investment bank’s subsidiaries, its former leaders, and auditor KPMG LLP from being shunted to Switzerland.

A district court acted within its discretion in dismissing the lawsuit on grounds that New York wasn’t a convenient forum to hear the dispute, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Tuesday. The case will begin again in Switzerland if the investors choose to refile there.

“The district court recognized that there was some nexus between the plaintiffs’ Swiss law claim and their chosen New York forum, but reasonably concluded that the conduct at issue and dispute were ‘overwhelmingly Swiss’ in nature,” the appeals court said in an unsigned, unpublished opinion.

The consolidated proposed class suits, filed by Credit Suisse shareholders Gregory Stevenson and Nicole Lawtone-Bowles, sought $120 billion in potential damages, pointing to numerous “scandals” they allege contributed to the Swiss bank’s collapse in March 2023. The bank’s stock plunged to $2.01 per share that day—down more than 94% from when it first traded in October 2013. It was acquired by another Swiss bank, UBS Group AG.

The investors claimed Credit Suisse directors and officers, together with the accounting firm KPMG, mismanaged investments and plundered the bank for more than a decade in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The shareholders also asserted claims under the Swiss Code of Obligations.

Judge Colleen McMahon of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the RICO claims with finality in February 2024. She also dismissed the Swiss law claims on grounds that the New York forum wasn’t convenient, but said they could be refiled in Switzerland.

The investors appealed McMahon’s dismissal of the Swiss law claims. Oral argument was held Jan. 14. Judges Guido Calabresi, Reena Raggi, and Eunice C. Lee served on the panel.

Bottini & Bottini Inc. represented the investors. Latham & Watkins LLP represented KPMG. Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP represented the Credit Suisse entities and a number of individual defendants. Ballard Spahr LLP represented additional individual defendants. Brown Rudnick LLP represented individual defendant Jeffrey Wada.

The case is Stevenson v. Thornburgh, 2d Cir., No. 24-1788, 2/3/26.