(This is the second in a series of posts which reviews documents filed on the Supreme Court of New York's website in connection with Mashreqbank v AHAB to which AHAB has added Mr. AlSanea as a Third Party Defendant. NY Supreme Court Case Index # 601650/2009. More details here).
The document in question is one of the Appendices to the Supplemental Affirmation of Robert F. Serio, Esq., of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (NY Supreme Court Document 107) , who represent Mr. AlSanea in these proceedings. He is arguing in his submission in support of the contention that New York is a forum non conveniens.
The Appendix is Serio Exhibit #25 (NY Supreme Court Document 107-2). What's interesting is that this document is a Witness Statement given in London by AHAB's lawyers. Mr. Serio has introduced it because he believes it shows that in this document AHAB (a) "acknowledges the burden of transporting those witnesses from the Middle East to testify", (b) it intends to present in evidence in England "expert evidence on 'Saudi law ... in relation to issues of authority'" and that (c) AHAB further admits "some of the factual evidence will require an interpreter".
What's interesting are some of the other bits in Mr. Ford's statement. Before we delve into these, it's very important to note that Mr. Ford represents AHAB and just as Mr. Serio has the interests of his client foremost in his mind so does Mr. Ford. So as you read both documents, make no mistake that we are dealing with impartial disinterested parties in either case. Also with respect to Mr. Ford's Witness Statement, he makes several assertions, observations and interpretations. We need to be very clear of the distinction between an assertion - even one made in the most rigorous good faith - and a proven fact.
Let's go to his Witness Statement. The following are direct quotes from that statement:
- "Paragraph 13. AHAB says that this borrowing was obtained by the forgery of the signatures of the chairman of AHAB by or at the direction of Mr AI Sanea on hundreds of banking document number: LN65977/1-EU-5542569/2 3 documents. It has submitted many of the banking documents to forensic examination by Dr Audrey Giles, head of the Giles Document Laboratory and formerly head of the Questioned Documents Section of the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory. Dr Giles' work has been hampered by the lack of original documents (many of which were removed from the Money Exchange by Mr AI Sanea and which he has refused to return). Nevertheless she has so far concluded that there is evidence that the signatures on at least 286 banking documents are not genuine. On some documents, signatures have been applied by colour photocopying or by an inkjet printer and then traced over with a porous-tip pen; on others, the signatures are identical matches of those on other documents and therefore highly unlikely to be genuine. In some cases the signatures were applied to documents at a time when it would have been physically impossible for the purported author to have signed because of incapacitating illness."
- "Paragraph 14. The scale of the alleged fraud is enormous. A large team of forensic accountants from Deloitte has been investigating the fraud on behalf of AHAB since the end of May 2009. Their work is continuing, but their analysis to-date shows that over US$5.2 billion has been paid out from the Money Exchange to Mr AI Sanea or to companies controlled by him. The outstanding total of unauthorised borrowing arranged by Mr AI Sanea, including accrued interest, commitment fees and related charges, appears to exceed US$9.2 billion, sourced from some 118 banks around the world."
And just to end where we began. The above are allegations by the counsel for AHAB against Mr. AlSanea. As you might expect, both Mr. AlSanea and his counsel vigorously deny any wrongoing. As far as I know, no Court has rendered a judgment in this matter yet. And so these remain allegations.
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