A UK judge yesterday ordered a division of the Saad Group, the Saudi conglomerate owned by Maan al Sanea, to pay Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) US$33.1 million (Dh121.5m) for defaulting on a currency-exchange deal.
The judgment hands ADCB one of the first victories in a complex tangle of court cases that began when trouble cropped up last summer at Saad and another large Saudi business, Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi and Brothers.
Judge Michael Brindle ruled in London's High Court that Saad Trading, Contracting and Financial Services defaulted on a currency-swap transaction when its credit ratings were withdrawn in June last year.
Bloomberg reported the judge called Saad's argument that ADCB failed to terminate the swap deal on time and neglected to provide a bank account for payment "hopeless".
ADCB and London representatives of the Saad Group did not respond to requests for comment. It is unclear whether the Saad subsidiary will appeal yesterday's decision.
Dozens of banks have sued since the Saad and Al Gosaibi groups began to default last summer. Courts in London, New York, the Cayman Islands, Bahrain and the UAE are hearing claims against them.
Al Gosaibi alleged last July that its problems stemmed from a $10 billion fraud committed against it by Mr al Sanea when he was in charge of Al Gosaibi's remittances arm.
Mr al Sanea, one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent businessmen, has denied the allegations.
The global accounting company Grant Thornton has been trying to broker an agreement between Saad and Al Gosaibi since early this year, hoping to put to rest a dispute that has shaken the kingdom's conservative business community and caused turmoil at the region's banks.
Banks in the Gulf are thought to account for about half of the Saad and Al Gosaibi groups' overall debts of about $20bn and the turmoil has led many lenders to write off loans and set aside provisions against defaults.
Several UAE banks including Emirates NBD, ADCB, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and Mashreqbank have significant exposure to the groups.
With no sign of a settlement in sight, the court battles continue. In one of the most prominent cases to arise from the dispute, Mashreqbank is suing Al Gosaibi in New York over defaults on $225m of currency swaps.
And Fortis Bank, a Dutch lender that merged this year with ABN Amro, is also suing ADIB in New York, alleging it failed to honour obligations under a $40m trade finance deal that involved Al Gosaibi and Awal Bank, a Bahraini banking subsidiary of the Saad Group that has since been put under administration by Bahrain's central bank.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
match info
Union Berlin 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')
Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)