A subsidiary of Kuwait’s Agility and an affiliate were awarded USD 1.65 bn in damages and legal expenses after a tribunal determined that their USD 810 mn investment in Korek Telecom was expropriated illegally, according to a company statement.The International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration’s decision will seeKorek Telecom and its controlling shareholder, Iraqi businessman Sirwan Barzani, pay out the compensation to Agility’s Iraqi subsidiary Iraq Telecom (IT), and its affiliate, International Holdings (IH).

The breakdown: IH will be getting USD 1.329 bn, while USD 318.7 mn will go to IT.

What happened? The original claim was filed by Kuwait's Agility and France’s Orange with the Dubai-based tribunal in March 2018. It accused Korek Telecom and Barzani of bribing and corrupting Iraqi regulators in order to reach a wrongful decision of expropriating Agility’s subsidiary and affiliate’s holdings in Korek Telecom. The Tribunal agreed to this, and to the claim that Barzani had “breached his fiduciary obligations by engaging in multiple acts of self-dealing and misconduct, causing harm to the claimants,” according to the statement.

Background: A rulingby Iraqi regulators in March 2019 had stripped Kuwait’s Agility and France’s Orange of their 44% stake in Korek Telecom which they had held since 2011, and diverted the stake to a group of three investors which included Barzani.

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