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From: Kathy Ruemmler
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To: jeffrey E. [jeeyacation@gmail.com]
Subject: Fwd: Press: LA Times - Federal jury decides Middle East bank did not defraud Orange County entrepreneur
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Subject: FW: Press: LA Times - Federal jury decides Middle East bank did not defraud Orange County
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Subject: Press: LA Times - Federal jury decides Middle East bank did not defraud Orange County entrepreneur
The LA Times appears to be the first media to report on the verdict. Latham references are highlighted:
BUSINESS
Federal jury decides Middle East bank did not defraud Orange County entrepreneur<http://fw.to/aXv1QHI>
•>>, Ruemmler, Kathy (DC)
[Farooq Bajwa]
Farooq Bajwa
By Andrew Khouri
August 11, 2016
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A federal jury decided Thursday that one of the Middle East's most prominent banks did not commit fraud and
steal technology from an Irvine firm that sued it for half a billion dollars in damages after their partnership
collapsed.
Orange County company InfoSpan had alleged that Emirates NBD ended a partnership for a mobile payment
system because it didn't want to share revenue and stole InfoSpan's technology to launch its own service.
The Dubai-based bank, in turn, denied it stole or ever used InfoSpan's technology. It argued that it cancelled the
partnership because InfoSpan couldn't produce a working product and misled it into thinking it was an
established company, not one with little to no track record.
After deliberating for a day, the jury unanimously decided that InfoSpan did not prove its case of fraud and theft
of trade secrets.
InfoSpan had asked for $540 million in damages. An attorney for InfoSpan declined to comment on the
possibility of an appeal.
The verdict capped a two-week trial that involved dueling accusations of fraud levied by high-profile attorneys
on both sides, including the former White House counsel to President Obama.
At the center of the high-stakes battle was San Juan Capistrano resident and entrepreneur Farooq Bajwa and a
mobile payment system that he said would allow migrant workers in the Middle East to send remittances back
home through text messages.
Bajwa contended that InfoSpan, with support from outside investors, spent $87 million developing the business
and technology.
To launch the system, known as SpanCash, Bajwa partnered in 2007 with Emirates Bank, which is controlled
by the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund.
It seemed the ideal collaboration for the Pakistani immigrant, who earned millions operating another Irvine
company that manufactured computer components in the 1980s and 1990s
The Gulf States rely heavily on migrants to work construction and other low-wage jobs, offering a ready-made
market for SpanCash. InfoSpan aimed to allow migrants to transfer money back home far more cheaply than
Western Union or hawala, a traditional Middle Eastern broker-to-broker money transfer system.
A study from McKinsey & Co., cited in court records, projected annual revenue of $3.5 billion by the deal's
fifth year, with InfoSpan receiving more than $2.8 billion in fees.
But the relationship between InfoSpan and Emirates Bank soured and the bank cancelled the deal in 2009.
A few days later, Emirates filed a criminal complaint in Dubai against Bajwa and a partner alleging that they
defrauded the bank and misrepresented InfoSpan as an established business with a working technology.
Two years later, InfoSpan sued in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and alleged that its technology was working
and that it delivered its source code to the bank on servers. Emirates ended the deal, InfoSpan said, to launch its
own mobile payment system after stealing InfoSpan's technology.
In court, an attorney for InfoSpan argued that Emirates torpedoed the InfoSpan relationship because it abhorred
how much money it would have to share with the Irvine firm.
"They wanted SpanCash and they wanted the money," attorney William A. Isaacson said in his closing
arguments Wednesday.
Isaacson — a partner with powerhouse law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner, chaired by high-profile litigator David
Boies — argued that the bank resorted to "pure extortion" in an attempt to get its way.
As a result of the bank's criminal complaint, InfoSpan alleged Bajwa's partner, Larry Scudder, was detained at
the Dubai International Airport and taken to a cell where he was locked in with 30 other men for 19 hours until
he secured his release by turning over his passport.
According to the lawsuit, Bajwa tried to resolve the situation but was told Scudder's passport would be released
and he could leave the country only if InfoSpan gave up ownership and control of SpanCash to the bank.
Six months later, the bank withdrew the fraud accusations and Scudder got his passport back, but SpanCash's
reputation was tarnished and it collapsed, Bajwa previously told The Times.
The bank disputed that it acquired InfoSpan's source code or used it at any time.
Former White House counsel and an attorney for the bank, Kathryn Ruemmler, said that Emirates never would
have acquired source code in a joint-partnership deal like the one reached with InfoSpan. She said such
technology would instead be held by a third-party escrow company for the length of the partnership.
In her closing arguments, the partner with global firm Latham & Watkins told the jury that Bajwa and InfoSpan
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sold the bank a "bill of goods," arguing that despite promises to Emirates, the technology never worked and
InfoSpan wasn't as big a company as it claimed.
The bank cancelled the deal and filed a criminal complaint, not as a form of extortion but simply to regain the
bank's money after it was misled and doubts grew about the character of InfoSpan's employees, Ruemmler told
the jury.
"They concluded, definitively, that they had been defrauded," she said.
Lubna Qassim, group general counsel for Emirates Bank, said in a statement after the verdict that "Emirates
Bank is gratified by today's decision and the opportunity to receive a fair trial in U.S. courts."
Bajwa said the trial has taken a toll on him and he doesn't know his next steps.
"I am just beat up," he said.
Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report.
Copyright 0 2016, Los Angeles Times<http://www.latimes.com/>
Frank Pizzurro
Public Relations Senior Manager
LATHAM & WATKINS LLP
355 South Grand Avenue 1Los Angeles, CA 90071-1560
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