A Saudi-born businessman has won the right for his battle to force a Lebanese bank to release $24 million of his funds to be heard by a court in the UK.
Sheikh Mohammed Omar Kassem Alesayi asked Bank Audi to transfer the money, held in eight accounts, to an account he held with the UBP private bank in Geneva in 2022 but the bank has refused.
The request came during Lebanon’s banking crisis, which began in 2019, and has resulted in banks refusing to make international transfers. Bank Audi has argued that almost all Lebanese banks have limited access to foreign currency which has significantly curtailed their normal operations.
Sheikh Alesayi, who was born in Saudi Arabia but is now a UK citizen, started proceedings against the bank in the English courts, seeking an order that the bank carry out the transfer.
His claim is based on decisions of the High Court in London that customers of Lebanese banks are entitled to international transfers based on the law of Lebanon, provided there is a sufficient balance.
Under UK law, a consumer living in the UK can bring a claim in an English court against a business that pursues commercial activities in the UK or directs such activities there.
Bank Audi denied that it directs commercial activities to the UK and argues the High Court has no jurisdiction over the dispute. The bank also argued that Sheikh Alesayi was not domiciled in Britain when he first opened his account in 1994.
But Sheikh Alesayi argued that he should be considered as being domiciled in Britain since 2016, when he opened an account with the UBP, and was by that time living full-time in London.
As part of his claim, he told the High Court he has long-standing connections to the UK, dating to the 1970s. His father bought eight properties in the upmarket St John’s Wood area of London and gave them to Sheikh Alesayi and his five siblings.
From about 1990, he said he established a second home at the property and began regularly attending Regent’s Park Mosque.
The court was told that he bought a Bentley and had it delivered to the penthouse and also employed a chauffeur, which is indicative of permanent residency.
Sheikh Alesayi was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a Tier 1 Investor in 2018. He was granted Settlement Status with Indefinite Leave to Remain in 2021 and then in 2023 he was granted British citizenship.
In his ruling, Judge Adam Constable said that “Sheikh Alesayi has a good arguable case that he was domiciled in London from around 2012 onwards” and that the High Court has jurisdiction in the dispute.
Lebanese banks imposed arbitrary restrictions on their clients in 2019 after the state failed to honour its bond commitments and the economy went into a tailspin. The Covid-19 pandemic forced the economic crisis to historic proportions.
The possibility of Lebanese depositors soon gaining access up to $93 billion stuck in the country's banks is slim to none, financial analysts say, despite assurances from the Lebanese economy minister.
The economic collapse was blamed on decades of financial mismanagement and corruption by Lebanon's ruling elite. Former central bank governor Riad Salameh has also been accused of helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from the central bank.
A subsidiary of Bank Audi, Banque Audi (Suisse) SA, is one of several banks suspected of sheltering the money allegedly embezzled by Mr Salameh.
A Swiss financial regulator last year found that Banque Audi (Suisse) “breached its obligations in the prevention of money laundering” and “seriously violated financial market law”.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
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The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLA
Price, base / as tested Dh150,900 / Dh173,600
Engine 2.0L inline four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Power 211hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 1,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
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