Firm With Frozen Assets ‘A Disgrace’
A controversial Palestinian construction firm which had its Bermuda assets frozen in 2009 was branded “a complete disgrace” in the British High Court today [Feb.2] for failing to pay multi-million pound liabilities owed to a former partner.
Consolidated Contractors Company — owned by the Palestinian Khoury family — is being sued for contempt of court for failing to pay a former joint venture partner profits from their concession in Yemeni oilfields.
“I think that it is a complete disgrace that a large and solvent operation, such as the defendants and their holding company involved in this case, should flout in this way the orders of this court”, said Mrs Justice Gloster. “I think it is a complete disgrace and it is very, very rarely found in this court.”
CCC holdings in Bermuda were frozen two years ago because of the longstanding legal dispute between the firm — one of the largest contracting companies in the Middle East — and another Palestinian business tycoon, Munib Masri. Since then orders to freeze CCC assets have also been issued in the UK, Switzerland, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories and the Cayman Islands.
An attempt by CCC to have Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley’s decision regarding its Bermuda assets set aside was dismissed as ”unmeritorious” by the Bermuda Court of Appeal, which noted in its decision: ”The Appeal was heard on 13 November 2009 when the Appellants were represented by Alexander Layton QC making his first appearance before the Courts in Bermuda. We are grateful to him for his skilled and restrained submissions, notwithstanding that their content was of so little merit.”
The firm, which has been a generous donor to British political parties and individual politicians in recent years, could see its assets seized and directors jailed if CCC does not comply with court orders to pay Mr. Masri a total liability of £40 million.
At one point CCC retained former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as a consultant for an annual fee of £50,000 and it has donated £118,000 to the Conservative Party since last year.
