Financial giant Credit Suisse is defending its US$375 million loan to a now-bankrupt Montana resort for the rich, saying it was a legitimate transaction that reflected standard lending practices at the time.
Creditors for the Yellowstone Club claim the loan was fraudulent.
They say Credit Suisse was peddling dangerous loans that relied on faulty projections about revenue and the asset’s market value.
Steven Yankauer, a senior officer with Credit Suisse, testified on Tuesday there was no way the club’s financial demise could have been foreseen, especially considering it was valued at about US$470 million even into last year.
At the time of the loan in 2005, credit markets were so liquid that lenders were clamoring to invest in the club, Yankauer said.
“Capital was extremely free flowing and available,” he said of investor interest in the ritzy resort in southwest Montana.
Yellowstone Club attorney Troy Greenfield grilled Yankauer on Tuesday about how a huge international banking group could have overlooked the resort’s serious cash flow problems. He also suggested that greed led the firm to look the other way.
Credit Suisse, which made similar loans to five other posh resorts that have since defaulted or declared bankruptcy, received about US$7.4 million in fees from the transaction.
The Yellowstone Club declared bankruptcy in November, after Edra Blixseth took over its ownership from her former husband Tim Blixseth.
The resort’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy trial now pits the divorced couple against each other. On one side, stand Credit Suisse and Tim Blixseth, who claim the loan was legal. And on the other are Edra Blixseth and a group of creditors, asking the judge to rule the loan should not have to be repaid.
An auction for the club began on Wednesday and concludes May 13.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station