Al-amoudi wins $4.75 mln lawsuit

April 29th, 2008 | EthioPolitics.com |

By Groum Abate - Capital

Two wealthy Saudis, have won a lawsuit against an American expatriate who duped them into investing in his firm.

The Singapore High Court ruled in favour of companies belonging to Prince Fahad Abdullah Mohammed al-Saud and Sheikh Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, the Ethiopian born self-made billionaire.

They had sued Lane Pendleton, claiming he had lied about the financial health of the company, Orient Network Holdings (ONH), to secure millions in investment dollars, The Straits Times said.
The judge ruled in favour of the Saudis after Pendleton failed to hand over a computer hard drive that was believed to contain information relevant to the case. A hearing will be held to assess how much Pendleton must pay.

The Saudis were not named as plaintiffs, but were suing through their investment firms.
Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s assistant minister of defense and aviation, owns the Swiss-based Alliance Management, the report said. Al-Amoudi is behind the British Virgin Islands-based firm Freeford.

Alliance gave 8.7 million US dollars to OHN, while Freeford invested more than 4.8 million US dollars in the firm between 2000 and 2003.

The firm went under in 2005, and the two Saudis filed lawsuits against Pendleton and his investment vehicle to get back their money. In addition to claiming they were duped, the Saudis said they were misled into acting as guarantors for the firm and its subsidiary, Orient Telecommunications Networks in 2003.

In 2006, multimillion dollar lawsuits against a US expatriate were filed by the two Saudis. Investments poured into Lane Pendleton’s company, which then went bust. Prince Fahad Abdullah Mohammed al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s assistant minister of defence and aviation, and Sheikh Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, one of the richest people in the world, sued the US expatriate.

Both Saudis consider that Pendleton fraudulently misrepresented Orient’s financial state and prospects to encourage them to invest in it. Alliance put in 8.65 million USD. As to Freeford, between November 2000 and September 2003, it turned over 4.75 million USD.

While the two wealthy Saudis want to get their investments back, Pendleton insists that his claims were reasonable. Pendleton says that he had no reason to doubt the considerations of Orient’s management. Also, he said that Orient failed because of Freeford not keeping its promise to inject another 2.25 million USD.