Bahrain sheikh sued for $42.5m as deal to meet film stars sours

MUMBAI: A member of the Bahraini royal family has been dragged to court in London by an international businessman in a fallout over an agreement on meeting Bollywood film stars. The Egyptian businessman, Ahmed Adel Abdallah, alleged that Sheikh Hamad Isa Ali Al Khalifa, a distant cousin of the current King of Bahrain, had given him a list of 26 stars he wished to meet but reneged after meeting four, including Shah Rukh Khan.Ahmed, who was the facilitator for the meetings, is claiming $42.5 million from the sheikh.
Recently, the London high court declined Sheikh Hamad’s plea to stay civil trial proceedings in a London court and said the case can be heard in England, not Bahrain.
The oral deal, alleged Ahmed, was for his company to exclusively arrange for Bollywood stars to meet the Bahrain national “for 15-25 minutes for $1.5 million per meeting, with a bonus $500,000 for every third meeting’’.
Sheikh Hamad denied any agreement on fee payment or exclusivity with Ahmed.
“A meeting with Shah Rukh Khan was arranged and four other meetings with three other stars between January 16 and March 2016 in India and Dubai for which the first claimant (Ahmed) was paid (according to the defendant) in excess of $3.4 million,” the court order said.
Denying any further payment was due from him, Sheikh Hamad told the court, “Although it was understood that the first claimant (Ahmed) would be remunerated for his services, there was no agreement on any specific sums and no agreement on exclusivity.’’ He also said that Ahmed declined to disclose how much it cost him to arrange the meetings. He said that by April 2016, as Ahmed was “making demands for very large sums to arrange further meetings’’, which he said he “did not want,’’ he terminated the authority he had given him to arrange the meetings.
Sheikh Hamad’s case was that his uncle, aware of his keen interest in Bollywood cinema, introduced him to Ahmed in December 2015 in Bahrain. He said Ahmed had told his uncle that he had contacts with Bollywood stars. So, they discussed the possibility of Ahmed introducing him to some, “in particular one star called Shah Rukh Khan,’’ the court judgment read.
Ahmed, who the court said describes himself as an international businessman and runs a Dubai-based company that offers “professional broking services to wealthy and/or notable individuals” claimed he was deprived of earnings from making arrangements for the remaining 22.
No list of stars was produced or exhibited during the proceedings, the court observed.
The Bahraini national challenged the jurisdiction of London courts and sought a stay on the trial there saying it be tried in courts of Bahrain. His counsel, Andrew Lenon Queen’s Counsel (QC), instructed by Simon Gleek, contended that the “appropriate venue for trying a dispute about agency arrangements agreed orally in Arabic by two individuals based in Bahrain, negotiated at meetings in Bahrain…and governed by Bahrain law, with witnesses living in Bahrain, and which had nothing to do with England or English law, is clearly Bahrain, not England”.
Ahmed’s counsel Stephen Nathan, QC instructed by Zaiwalla & Co, at a hearing earlier this month argued about a perceived risk of injustice in Bahrain courts. Lenon submitted that the “claimant would receive a fair trial in Bahrain”. The London HC ruled that there was “no real risk of injustice” in Bahrain courts.
The HC analyzed connected factors including identity and whereabouts of parties, witnesses, documents, to test appropriateness of forum “in the interest of both parties and ends of justice”. It observed that both visit London often and have a knowledge of English.
The judge said potential witness could include members of the parties’ respective entourages, including Sheikh Hamdad’s personal secretary and his banker, “an Indian businessman involved in the logistics of arranging meetings with stars in India, as well as, more remotely the possibility of evidence from the agents of the Bollywood stars and the stars themselves in relation to the quantum claimed, since, under the contract alleged, it fell to the claimants to pay the stars for their time and trouble.’’
It would make little difference to most of these witnesses whether they had to travel to London or elsewhere in the middle east, said the court.