Charles Russell Speechlys successfully advises Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain) in a case involving a 'fabricated' arbitral award

Charles Russell Speechlys has successfully advised its client Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain) (KFHB) in a case in the English High Court, involving an arbitration award that was found by the sitting Judge to be “a fabrication”. 

KFHB's bank accounts had been unexpectedly frozen in accordance with the terms of a number of third-party debt orders enforcing the supposed arbitration award, each for a sum in excess of £70.6m issued by the High Court. However, following a claim brought by KFHB and other Kuwait Finance House entities, the judge decided it was "very unlikely that the alleged arbitration agreement is genuine" and that there were "very strong grounds for concluding that the award itself is a fabrication". 

Gareth Mills, Partner, comments on the successful result for KFH Bahrain: 

"The Court has found that a High Court Judgment issued against our client should be set aside as it was obtained under false pretences based on a fictitious set of foreign arbitral proceedings. 

"This is, we believe, a ruling based on a unique set of circumstances. We are delighted to have achieved this excellent result for our client Kuwait Finance House(Bahrain) helping to prevent any further damage to our client's business and reputation being occasioned by what has found to be a completely fabricated Arbitral Award, said to have been made against it and fellow group companies." 

The team was led by Dispute Resolution Partner, Gareth Mills with support from Construction Partner Mazin Al Mardhi, Associate Rory Partridge and Trainee Solicitor Frances Day.

The uniqueness of this case was re-iterated heavily by the Judge who, at the hearing, stated that he was not aware of any similar attempt being made on the Court. This emphasizes the Firm’s expertise in dealing with civil fraud matters and was managed by both our Firm's UK and Bahrain offices.