UK Supreme Court reinstates €67 million judgment against Saudi businessman 

November 25, 2025

Originally posted on GRR

Saudi hotel magnate Sheikh Mohamed Al Jaber has been ordered to pay €67 million in equitable compensation to a BVI-incorporated leisure group he founded, after the UK Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision and provided guidance on how to pinpoint when the value of any misappropriation should be calculated.

Earlier today, a five-judge panel in the UK Supreme Court issued a decision partly reversing a Court of Appeal ruling and confirming that the Sheikh and a related company, Guernsey-registered JJW Limited (JJW Guernsey) must pay €67 million in equitable compensation to the liquidators of MBI International & Partners (MBI).

The UK’s top court said Al Jaber breached his fiduciary duty as director of MBI when he caused the company to transfer its only valuable asset, shares it owned in another BVI company, JJW Hotels & Resorts Holding (JJW Inc), after it entered liquidation.

The shares were transferred to JJW Guernsey, another company for which Al Jaber was a director, for no consideration.

The decision comes after the Court of Appeal found last year that the Sheikh had breached his fiduciary duty, but vacated a monetary order issued against him by the High Court after finding the shares owned by MBI became worthless after the transfer, so it had not suffered any loss. 

But the Supreme Court found that when calculating equitable compensation, courts do not necessarily have to calculate the value of misappropriated assets at the date of the trial but can calculate the value at the date of the breach of fiduciary duty. 

“The fact that there is no fixed rule means that the question which date is appropriate to use to assess the value of what has been misappropriated is an open one, which requires consideration of what is just and equitable as between the beneficiary and the trustee (or the principal, such as a company, and the fiduciary),” the judgment said. 

The appeal to the Supreme Court was brought by MBI’s liquidators, Krys Global founder Kenneth Krys and managing director Greig Mitchell in the BVI, and the Sheikh himself.

Counsel to MBI’s liquidators, Clyde & Co partner Andrew Foster in London, tells GRR the ruling provides clarity on what the courts should consider when measuring the loss by a breach of duty.

“[T]he correct date for assessment of the value of a misappropriated asset is an open one, which requires consideration of what is just and equitable on the facts,” he says. “There is therefore no fixed rule that the date for quantifying the value of the misappropriated asset must be the trial date.”

The case stems from several transactions completed between multiple group companies controlled by the Sheikh from 2009 to 2017.

In 2016, he transferred around 891,000 of shares in JJW Inc held by MBI to JJW Guernsey. MBI had initially purchased the shares from JJW Guernsey in 2009 for €56 million to be “paid on demand” to JJW Guernsey. 

The purchase would have allowed MBI to benefit from a proposed IPO of JJW Inc’s shares, the returns of which it would have been used to repay JJW Guernsey and another shareholder. 

MBI had been in liquidation since 2011, but Al Jaber completed the share transfer after purporting to be MBI’s director, without the knowledge of the company’s liquidator at the time, Krys Global managing director Charlotte Caulfield, who was replaced by Krys and Mitchell when she joined Interpath-owned Kalo in September 2019.

In June 2017, Caulfield obtained recognition of her appointment under the UK’s 2006 Cross-Border insolvency Regulations to protect MBI’s assets in the UK. About two weeks later, JJW Guernsey transferred the 891,000 shares in JJW Inc to a separate MBI entity, MBI International Holdings.

Another JJW company, JJW UK, also assumed all JJW Inc’s assets and liabilities, which the Supreme Court said Al Jaber had not provided a satisfactory explanation for given JJW Inc’s assets exceeded its liabilities by a “considerable margin”. The asset and liability transfer rendered the 891,000 shares worthless. 

Caulfield first brought proceedings against the Sheikh in the UK in 2019, and the England & Wales High Court found that the 2016 transfers were void, the Sheikh owed a fiduciary duty in the winding up of MBI and had breached that duty when making the transfer, and that JJW Guernsey was a knowing recipient of the shares. 

The High Court judge found Sheikh and JJW Guernsey were jointly and severally liable to pay MBI €67 million as equitable compensation for the transfer, the estimated value of JJW Hotel’s shares in 2016 before they became worthless. 

But Al Jaber and JJW Guernsey appealed the decision and, while the appellate court agreed Al Jaber had breached his fiduciary duty, it reversed the €67 million order against them. The appellate justices found the liquidators had failed to demonstrate any loss to MBI’s estate considering that the 2017 asset and liability transfer had made JJW Inc’s shares worthless. 

But the Supreme Court found that it was down to Al Jaber to prove that he had played no significant part or gained benefit from the 2017 transfer in order to show that it had diminished the loss to MBI when he transferred JJW Inc’s shares to JJW Guernsey. 

It added that the value of the shares had been diminished for MBI International Holdings when JJW UK assumed JJW Inc’s assets and liabilities.

The Krys liquidators tell GRR that they are pleased with the decision. 

“As to the approach that the Supreme Court took in determining value, we take the view that it is right that the onus is on the party who stole the assets to account for them,” they say. “Without providing a commercial basis for making the transfers, the Sheikh would have got away with committing fraud twice and benefitting from it.” 

In the UK Supreme Court

  • Lord Hodge
  • Lord Briggs
  • Lord Sales
  • Lord Stephens
  • Lord Richards

Liquidators of MBI International & Partners

  • Krys Global

Founder Kenneth Krys and managing director Greig Mitchell in the BVI

Counsel to the liquidators

  • Joseph Curl KC, Tom Smith KC and Jon Colclough (South Square)
  • Clyde & Co

Partners Andrew Foster and Duncan Lockhart, legal director Tristan Cox-Chung, senior associate Dalia Damanhouri and associate Andrew Laurie in London

Counsel to Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber

  • Philip Rainey KC, Marc Glover, Andrew Martin and Sami Allan (Tanfield)  
  • Spencer West

Partner Amrit Johal in London

Counsel to JJW Guernsey

  • James Fennemore (XXIV Old Buildings)
  • Troutman Pepper Locke

Partner Marc Abrahams and barrister Amita Chohan in London