A Cayman Islands court has judged that $126 billion was defrauded from at least 118 banks between 1981 and 2009. The 1,348 page ruling follows a 10-year dispute between Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) and the Saad Group involving the collapse of each other’s business empires when both companies defaulted in 2009 with international and regional banks and other creditors being owed billions of dollars.
In his judgement, the Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands, dismissed a $4 billion claim by AHAB against Saad Investments and other companies for alleged fraud involving an AHAB business unit called the Money Exchange. The Chief Justice also dismissed a $5.9 billion counterclaim by Saad. The Chief Justice stated that the financial statements “deliberately and grossly understated” the extent of its borrowings and the extent of AHAB’s indebtedness to its banks and was “one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history”.