Kuwait Fund Must Hand Over Papers in Bonus Spat With Ex-Managers
Kuwait Fund Must Hand Over Papers in Bonus Spat With Ex-Managers
(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund has been ordered to hand over “sensitive” documents in a London bonus dispute with some ex-mangers after it lost a London appeal over whether it could claim sovereign immunity.
The Kuwait Investment Authority challenged an employment suit from former executive, Simon Hard, saying he raised salaries and bonuses for him and colleagues without permission.The fund’s London branch appealed a “remarkable and invasive” order that it provide internal emails and investment mandates claiming it was protected from having to do so because of its connection with the state.
“The tribunal made no error of law in its approach to the matter,” Judge Naomi Ellenbogen said in the written judgment, in the case at London’s Employment Appeal Tribunal. “Her Majesty’s Government had not expressly recognized the appellant as forming part of the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission.”
The KIA, the oldest and one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, started out as a Bank of England account dedicated to receiving oil money in 1953. The fund alleges that Hard and two other former employees at its London office were part of a conspiracy in 2018 to award themselves unauthorized salary and bonus increases. Hard has previously denied the allegations and said he was victimized and faced age discrimination.
Judge Ellenbogen said KIA’s approach to its appeal was “inappropriate” saying that its production of documents on a “drip-feed basis” and the making of redactions was “cynical,” according to the judgment.
The KIA and Hard both did not immediately respond to requests for comments through their lawyers.
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