Meysan Partners achieves victory for Iraq Telecom in arbitration against Korek

Meysan Partners achieves victory for Iraq Telecom in arbitration against Korek

The tribunal had observed that the respondents had defrauded the two alliance entities

Meysan Partners has achieved a significant legal win for Iraq Telecom Limited (IT Ltd), a joint venture between Agility Public Warehousing Company and Orange S.A., in a recent International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration against Korek Telecom Company LLC (Korek) and its chair, Saber Sirwan Barzani.

The tribunal ruled that Korek and Barzani were involved in a corrupt scheme to defraud IT Ltd and IH Ltd. an affiliate of Agility that previously owned 100 percent shares of Korek by bribing regulators of the latter.

The tribunal also observed that the respondents had defrauded IT Ltd and IH Ltd through self-dealing, diversions of corporate assets, sham loans, and other schemes, all of which amounted to breaches of Korek’s Shareholders’ Agreement.

The tribunal awarded IH Ltd US$1.012 billion and IT Ltd US$228.8 million in damages.

It also ordered the respondents to pay the pre-award interest of US$317 million to IH Ltd and US$71.7 million to IT Ltd, apart from approximately US$20 million in legal fees and arbitration costs.

While the Meysan Partners team representing Agility comprised senior partner Bader El Jeaan and partner Abdulwahab Sadeq, along with White & Case and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Orange was advised by Jones Day.