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King & Spalding Obtains $133 Million Arbitration Award Against Government of Egypt
Largest Amount Ever Awarded to Individual Claimants
| Source: King & Spalding
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - June 3, 2009) - King & Spalding, a leading international law
firm, announced today that a transatlantic team of lawyers from its
international arbitration practice has secured a $133 million award against
the Egyptian government in a high-profile, long-running dispute involving
the expropriation of a 161-acre resort property on the Gulf of Aqaba on the
Red Sea. The award is the largest ever granted to individual claimants by
the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an
organization of the World Bank specializing in disputes between foreign
investors and governments. It is also the seventh-largest ICSID award ever
rendered.
King & Spalding's clients, Italian citizens Waguih Siag and Clorinda
Vecchi, were the owners and principal investors in a project to develop a
resort on the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Israel border on the Gulf of
Aqaba. The Egyptian government seized the development in mid-1996 on the
basis that Siag had arranged for partial financing of the project from
Israeli sources. The armed seizure was carried out in violation of an
Egyptian court order, and Egypt failed to return the project to Siag and
Vecchi despite Egypt's highest court repeatedly ruling in their favor
between 1996 and 2003. The property was ultimately transferred by the
Egyptian government to a private party.
An ICSID tribunal determined that Egypt had violated an investment treaty
between Italy and Egypt that protected investments by Italians in Egypt.
The tribunal held that Egypt had illegally seized the property from Siag
and Vecchi, repeatedly failed to respect the rulings of its own judiciary
and failed to offer the pair any measure of protection or security in
relation to their investments. The tribunal awarded Siag and Vecchi
approximately $127 million in damages and interest and an additional $6
million in legal expenses.
"We are very pleased the tribunal recognized that the conduct of the
Egyptian government violated virtually every protection made available to
our clients as foreign investors under the bilateral investment treaty
between Italy and Egypt," said Reginald R. Smith, a King & Spalding partner
involved in the case. "It is our expectation that Egypt will respect its
treaty obligations to our clients based on this award."
The King & Spalding legal team representing Siag and Vecchi in the matter
was led by partners Smith (Houston), Craig S. Miles (Houston) and Kenneth
R. Fleuriet (London), and assisted by associates Heloise Herve (London),
Sarah Zagata Vasani (Washington) and Amin M. Husain (New York).
King & Spalding has one of the leading international arbitration practices
in the world, specializing in foreign investment disputes against
governments, oil and gas and energy disputes, and disputes involving large
infrastructure and development projects. American Lawyer's Focus Europe
survey in June 2007 ranked King & Spalding first in the world in
investment treaty arbitrations and second in the overall number of
high-stakes international arbitrations. King & Spalding has also
successfully represented claimants in three other ICSID decisions that are
among the largest ICSID awards ever granted.
About King & Spalding
King & Spalding is an international law firm with more than 880 lawyers in
Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dubai, Frankfurt, Houston, London,
New York, Riyadh (affiliated office), San Francisco, Silicon Valley and
Washington, D.C. The firm represents half of the Fortune 100 and in
Corporate Counsel surveys consistently has been among the top firms
representing Fortune 250 companies. For additional information, visit
www.kslaw.com.