Steven Vames, vice president for corporate communications for Credit Suisse bank, has issued this statement on the latest legal filings in federal court in Idaho, in which Alfredo Miguel, founder and former board chairman of the failed Tamarack Resort in Idaho, and Tim Blixseth, founder and former manager and developer of the Yellowstone Club in Montana, have filed to intervene in a pending lawsuit against Credit Suisse, charging the Swiss bank with fraud, conspiracy and more, in a scheme they charge directly contributed to the financial failure of both resorts:

“Credit Suisse rejects Mr. Blixseth's and Mr. Miguel's entirely meritless allegations and their attempt to latch onto an existing suit which has already seen many of the plaintiffs' claims dismissed. For Mr. Blixseth in particular, this is simply the latest attempt to shift blame to others and away from his own conduct.”

The lawsuit's racketeering claim under the federal RICO Act, or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was dismissed in March as not applicable to the case. Other claims, however, including charges of fraud, conspiracy, tortious interference and breach of fiduciary duty, were allowed to proceed. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

Alfredo Miguel, founder and former board chairman of the failed Tamarack Resort, and Tim Blixseth, founder and former manager and developer of the Yellowstone Club in Montana, have filed to intervene in a pending lawsuit against Credit Suisse, charging the Swiss bank with racketeering, fraud, conspiracy and more, in a scheme they charge directly contributed to the financial failure of both resorts.

The existing lawsuit, originally filed in January of 2010 by a group of property owners from four failed luxury resorts, charged the second-largest bank in Switzerland with engaging in a “predatory” lending scheme designed to force all four resorts into foreclosure, and acquire the pricey properties for pennies on the dollar while raking in “enormous” fees. In addition to Tamarack and the Yellowstone Club, the 2010 federal lawsuit covers two other failed luxury resorts: Lake Las Vegas in Nevada, and Ginn Sur Mer resort in the Bahamas.

The filings from Miguel and Blixseth charge that the two resorts suffered “defaults and foreclosures caused directly by shoddy, deceitful, misleading and fraudulent appraisals deliberately inflated by appraisers and lenders resulting in catastrophe for lending institutions, innocent borrowers and other parties collaterally affected by defaulting loans secured by property such as vendors, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, title insurance companies and purchasers of real estate.”

The scheme, according to the legal filings, involved a “new and exotic real estate loan product” that Credit Suisse developed in 2004, targeting owners of high-end real real estate resort developments with the pitch that they could enjoy all the future profits and equity from their developments, just as, at the time, homeowners were tapping into their fast-rising home equities through loans. There were differences, though: Little to no risk to Credit Suisse, potential huge profits for the bank when the loans failed, and the bigger the loans, the higher fees the bank made. Plus, appraisal values for the properties were vastly inflated using a new methodology. As a result, the Yellowstone Club was appraised at $420 million in September of 2004, but in July of 2005, it was appraised at $1.165 billion. Tamarack was  appraised at $284 million in December of 2005, but one month later Credit Suisse told Miguel it was worth $1.5 billion.

The Swiss bank ran the huge loans through its Cayman Islands branch, which the new filings charge “consisted of a lonely PO box and no office personnel whatsoever,” stating, “The Cayman Island Branch of CSFB was an outright sham and subterfuge.”

When the original lawsuit was filed, a Credit Suisse spokesman said the bank believed the suit to be “without merit” and would defend itself “vigorously.” The original lawsuit seeks $8 billion in actual damages and $16 billion in punitive damages, including $150 million each for the four communities impacted by the failed resort projects. You can read the Miguel/Blixseth brief here; it includes an allegation that Credit Suisse and Highland Capital called Miguel to a meeting in Dallas in March of 2010, told him not to bring his lawyers, and leaned on him for $1.2 million saying that Highland Capital had a party who was “close to the FBI and was prepared to use 'unorthodox methods' to collect on the guaranty.”

Here’s a link to my full story on the class-action lawsuit against Credit Suisse over an alleged “predatory” lending scheme involving four failed luxury resorts, including Tamarack Resort in Idaho, the Yellowstone Club in Montana, Lake Las Vegas in Nevada and Ginn Sur Mer on Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas. Duncan King, a spokesman for Credit Suisse in New York, told Eye on Boise this morning, “We believe the suit to be without merit, and will defend ourselves vigorously.” He had no further comment.

Tamarack, near Donnelly, Idaho, was touted as the first new four-season resort developed in the U.S. in decades, with extensive skiing, golf, hiking and mountain biking trails, hotels and high-end real estate. But its financial failure left unfinished buildings, unpaid contractors and unhappy owners holding pricey slopeside homes. This year, Tamarack’s ski lifts never opened for the season.

Credit Suisse, which the lawsuit accuses of racketeering, conspiracy, fraud and more, is the second-largest bank in Switzerland.

A group of property owners from four luxury resorts - including Tamarack Resort in Idaho - has filed a $24 billion class-action lawsuit against Credit Suisse, alleging that the big Swiss bank engaged in a “predatory” lending scheme designed to force all four resorts into foreclosure and acquire the pricey properties for pennies on the dollar, while raking in “enormous” fees. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boise, alleges racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and more, and seeks billions in damages, including $150 million each for the states impacted by the failed resort projects. The resorts, in addition to Tamarack, are Lake Las Vegas in Nevada; the Yellowstone Club in Montana; and the Ginn Sur Mer resort in the Bahamas.

Seven attorneys from California, Nevada, Texas and Idaho are listed in the complaint; none are commenting on the case, but the group issued a press release accusing Credit Suisse of “naked greed,” and said the bank’s scheme artificially inflated the value of the resort properties with the intention of then foreclosing on the debt-saddled owners. Also named as a defendant is Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate services firm that appraised properties for Credit Suisse, using a “total net value” appraisal methodology. Incidentally, the “naked greed” phrase in the press release is a quote from a federal bankruptcy judge in Montana, who wrote in a May 2009 court order that the bank’s actions in the Yellowstone Club case “shocks the conscience of this court,” adding, “Credit Suisse lined its pockets on the backs of the unsecured creditors.”

You can read the full federal court complaint in the class action suit here - it’s 81 pages long - or click below to read the press release from the plaintiffs. The two named plaintiffs, L.J. Gibson and Beau Blixseth, represent a group of about 3,000 homeowners, landowners and investors in the four resorts, according to the complaint.

The Boise attorney involved in the lawsuit is former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Robert Huntley, who has been involved in two previous national class-action lawsuits. One of those, on behalf of 19,000 hemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from the nation’s blood supply decades ago, resulted in a $640 million settlement from drug companies. The other, regarding people who got hepatitus C from an immunoglobulin product, represented about 6,000 patients who each received significant settlements, including a Boise plaintiff who won a $2.34 million verdict.