The Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS), the pension fund and social security authority for the state of Kuwait, has secured a substantial victory in the long-running litigation against its former Director General, Fahad Al Rajaan and others.

As the court found, the case involved proven corruption on a breathtaking scale, involving vast sums in secret commissions and many individuals who had reached senior positions in public office or the financial service industries of fund management and banking.

The proceedings were commenced in 2019 against Fahad Al Rajaan and others, including bankers, intermediaries and fund managers. The claims concerned the payment of secret commissions, assistance and money laundering in a long-running series of bribery and corruption schemes.

The final sums payable, together with interest and costs, will be determined over the coming weeks.

The decision of Mr Justice Jacobs also notes that substantial sums have already been paid to PIFSS by a number of defendants prior to judgment.

Findings of the English court

The court’s findings include the following:

• Fahad Al Rajaan secured secret commissions for himself and others totalling $996 million over a 20-year period
• The MAN Group (MAN) paid secret commissions of more than $150 million to secure investments from PIFSS between 1996 and 2014
• The Aerium Group and Ely Michel Ruimy agreed to pay bribes of over $100 million to secure investments from PIFSS
• A number of individuals and intermediaries who assisted Fahad Al Rajaan to conceal his corruption have been found to have done so dishonestly, including, Antoine Nasrallah (an intermediary who worked with Pictet Bank), Francesco Mombelli (another financial intermediary), Mohammed El Ghazzi (an intermediary retained by MAN), Antoine Massad (a former MAN employee), Patrick Merville (another former MAN employee) and Giles Guerin (a former employee of the Swiss private bank EFG)
• The defendants’ attempts to attribute responsibility for their conduct to PIFSS were rejected.

This result follows more than a decade of work by PIFSS and its legal teams to investigate the underlying conduct, trace the relevant transactions and pursue claims across multiple jurisdictions.

Separate criminal proceedings in Switzerland have resulted in the convictions of a number of individuals, including Luc Argand, a former head of the Geneva bar, Pierre Mirabaud, a former head of the Swiss banking regulator who also ran Banque Mirabaud, and Philippe Bertherat, a former senior partner at Pictet Bank.

Proceedings are continuing in Switzerland against Pictet Bank and others.

Mo Bhaskaran, Stewarts’ lead partner on the matter, remarks:

“This is a very important judgment for PIFSS and the culmination of more than a decade of determined work by PIFSS, and its advisors including the team at Kuwait’s Department for Legal Advice and Legislation, to uncover what happened and to hold those responsible to account.

“The scale, duration and international nature of the conduct made this an exceptionally complex case and involved the longest Commercial Court trial for 20 years. Our client remained resolute throughout, and this judgment fully vindicates its efforts.”