American links the key to AHAB efforts?

Now that the New York Supreme Court has ordered the AHAB-Saad Group dispute to be heard back in Saudi Arabia questions should be asked as to what prompted Saud Al Gosaibi's ultimately fruitless decision to pursue the case in the USA.

AHAB argues that the original decision to try to use the US judicial system was made by Mashreq Bank, with their own counter-suit against Maan Al-Sanea tacked on to that. That is certainly the order of events. However, given the obvious risks of jurisdiction (obvious, perhaps, with hindsight) the decision to pursue their claim in America must, we assume, have been very carefully considered. So, what other factors may have influenced that decision?

For now we can only speculate, but one theory - and it must remain that - is that the decision to try to use the US courts was part of a wider strategy that saw America as a country in which other influences could be brought to bear.

AHAB's chief lawyer, Eric Lewis (of Baach Robinson and Lewis PLLC) has been a key player throughout. Mr Lewis is no stranger to the Saudi Arabian legal system; indeed, his company biography states that he obtained a judgement that was "enforced through the courts of Saudi Arabia, the first non-Arab League judgment ever enforced in that country. "One might assume, therefore, that in hiring Mr Lewis AHAB was bringing on to its team a lawyer who would be able to help them in their claim in the country in which it was alleged to have been perpetrated. That the decision was then taken to pursue the case in the USA reinforces the view that there must have been other factors at play.

While Mr Lewis is a Middle Eastern expert, he is, of course, primarily a prominent American litigator. Furthermore, he is a very well connected American litigator. For example, an interesting fact is that, in 2007, Mr Lewis married Emily Spitzer, sister of Eliot Spitzer, who was the Governor of New York from 2007-08, when he was forced to resign after it emerged he had been involved as a client in a prostitution ring.

Could Mr Lewis's high-profile political connections, therefore, have influenced the decision to try AHAB's claim in America? Could they explain the involvement of Senator Peter King (see Taif Info Center "US Banks in Spotlight - May 11 2010)? Could Mr Lewis's influence explain another interesting fact - the reluctance of news agency Reuters (Thomson Reuters is, of course, headquartered in Manhattan) to, as yet, report the Supreme Court's decision with regards jurisdiction?

These, for now, must remain unanswered questions. However, the fact that this dispute is so high-profile could indicate that public relations considerations - as much as legal options - were a driving force behind many of both sides' actions. One thing that does seem certain, however, is that - as ever - there is more to this dispute than meets the eye.