English High Court Fully Trial Vindicates SoftBank, Rejecting Credit Suisse’s $440M Claim in Its Entirety

Quinn Emanuel recently successfully defended SoftBank against a substantial and high-profile U.S. $440 million insolvency-linked claim before the English High Court. The Quinn team defeated the claim brought by Credit Suisse, which alleged that SoftBank had sought to orchestrate for its own ends a complex restructuring involving the Greensill Group in late 2020.

Following a five-week trial in mid-2025, in October 2025 the Court rejected the claim entirely, finding that no relief should be ordered against the SoftBank Defendants. Indeed, SoftBank’s conduct was vindicated by the Court. The Court found that SoftBank had acted “in good faith,” “did not know or suspect” that Greensill intended to prejudice its creditors, and in fact “positively believed” (and had “reasonable grounds” for believing) that Greensill had already used the $440 million to make Credit Suisse whole, as was its intended purpose. This landmark judgment marked one of the first major trial conclusions arising from the Greensill collapse.

The case arose out of an out-of-court restructuring in late 2020 concerning two SoftBank portfolio companies, Greensill and Katerra. Greensill had securitized underlying exposure to Katerra. Credit Suisse was the holder of the relevant securitized notes. When Katerra became heavily financially distressed, Greensill approached SoftBank (which held significant investments in both Greensill and Katerra) to solve the Katerra problem. SoftBank injected $440 million into the restructuring on the understanding that Greensill would make Credit Suisse whole by repurchasing or repaying the notes. However, without SoftBank's knowledge and contrary to its understanding, Greensill released the underlying security before it had repurchased or repaid the notes. Greensill subsequently became insolvent, the notes defaulted, and Credit Suisse was left with losses of $440 million.

Following collateral disclosure proceedings issued by Credit Suisse under U.S.C. 28 § 1782, Credit Suisse, represented by Freshfields LLP, formally issued proceedings against SoftBank in the English High Court in early 2023. Credit Suisse claimed the face value of the notes from SoftBank. That was on the basis that SoftBank had allegedly “procured” the restructuring to try and obtain a debt-free Katerra for itself.

As noted, the Quinn Emanuel team successfully defended SoftBank from those allegations. Most importantly, the Court found that SoftBank was entirely innocent, and would never have agreed to inject the $440 million if it had known or suspected that the money would not be used promptly to pay off Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse’s claim was rejected and it was ordered to pay SoftBank’s costs.

The victory vindicated SoftBank and its senior executives, who faced serious allegations of bad faith conduct. The win represents a landmark victory for Quinn Emanuel’s insolvency and restructuring litigation and structured finance litigation practices.