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A legal dispute which has rumbled on for nearly 15 years already is subject to a stayed decision as Guernsey's Royal Court anticipates another appeal will be lodged.
Four family members, a business they own, and two representatives of a family Trust have been challenging two businesses registered in the Channel Islands with allegations of misdeeds concerning a property sold in England in 2010.
Although the family at the heart of the case have never lived in the Channel Islands, they have financial links to both Jersey and Guernsey through personal and family Trust accounts.
A gentleman called Sarchil Kazzaz moved from Iraq to England in the 1960s with his wife, where they had their children and built a successful business. That started with a grocers, before other investments were made including the family buying a former school, and extending their business interests to Turkey, France and Iraq.
The family had lived in Dubai since 2004, and when Mr Kazzaz died in 2007 his son Ahmed took over as 'Head of the Kazzaz family'.
Ahmed Kazzaz, his mother and two sisters have been embroiled in a legal dispute concerning the multi-million pound sale of the former school building (now student accommodation), which was completed in 2010.
Pictured: Ducie Court has been subject to extensive building work since it was sold by the Kazzaz family and is now marketed for £24m by Holder and Partners.
Ducie Court in the Manchester area had a reported value of around £5.2m when it was sold.
Based on financial advice, the family set up a number of Trusts and Companies, which Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited – which is in liquidation – advised on.
Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited, and its wholly owned subsidiary 'Songbird' – which is also now in liquidation – are both accused of breaches of trust, duty of skill and care, and some allegations of fraudulent activity.
The two Defendants deny these claimed breaches of trust or duty, and deny that any of their actions caused the Plaintiffs any meaningful losses.
According to publicly available court documents from a hearing in Guernsey in September of this year, Standard Chartered in Dubai had advised the Kazzaz family that its own subsidiary trust companies, including the Guernsey branch and Songbird should deal with their matters.
Mr Ahmed Kazzaz set up The Ask Trust in Guernsey in 2011 based on this advice.
It's alleged that problems started to occur when investments made on behalf of the Kazzaz family did not perform as expected, sums were withdrawn, and additional funds needed to be paid in.
The Trustees of the various Kazzaz family trusts have since made repeated claims for compensation but the court hearing in September found against them with all claims failing.
The Jurats found that Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited had acted correctly.
Pictured: Both Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited and Songbird have been liquidated.
The court also ordered that the two parties (The Kazzaz family and related parties, and Standard Chartered and Songbird) agree costs between them or the Court would do so on its behalf.
That led to a further court hearing last week, which saw Lieutenant Bailiff Hazel Marshall decide that £650,000 should be paid to Standard Chartered and Songbird, but with an expected appeal from the Kazzaz family, she ordered that the decision be stayed until after such an appeal has been heard.
While it may be difficult at first to see where the Channel Islands fit into this multi-national, multi-million pound dispute there are numerous financial links between the Kazzaz family and the islands.
While the Kazzaz family have never lived in the Channel Islands nor are they believed to have held any physical business assets in Guernsey or Jersey, they were advised by Standard Chartered in Dubai to use Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited to set up family Trusts to manage the proceeds of the sale of Ducie Court.
This advice was based on the way financial assets can be managed through Trusts in Guernsey. Standard Chartered was able to defend itself using the Trusts (Guernsey) Law 2007 to protect their limitation.
Mrs Sheila Kazzaz (wife of Sarchil and mother of Ahmed Kazzaz) was personally financially restricted during the timeline of this case being heard in Guernsey when her bank account held in Jersey was frozen.
The Kazzaz family have been subject to numerous court cases in other jurisdictions – some with links to the case heard in Guernsey's Royal Court and some unrelated.
Ahmed Kazzaz was jailed in America in 2012 for offences reported to have been committed in Iraq.
Pictured: Ahmed Kazzaz has been Chairman of the ASK Group since his father's death in 2007.
There are also news reports dated 2018 centred around allegations of impropriety related to a business called Iraq Duty Free which was set up by Mr Sarchil Kazzaz and inherited by his son on behalf of his family.
The Kazzaz family called claims of fraudulent activity related to Baghdad and Basra airports duty free provision a "smear campaign" in an article published by TR Business.
In her judgment last week, Her Honour Hazel Marshall KC Lieutenant Bailiff said she "would normally order an interim payment on account of costs if satisfied that this would not cause any unfair disadvantage to the paying party".
On this occasion she accepted legal arguments presented by Advocate Antony Williams representing Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited and Songbird and awarded the interim payment order of £650,000.
She said that money should be released to the defendants, however she also said that arguments presented by Advocate John Greenfield on behalf of the Kazzaz family led her to decide that the payment be stayed until they have lodged their proposed appeal, with the defendants able to apply to the court separately for the stay to be lifted and the funds to be released.
It's expected that an appeal will be lodged, and even if the funds are released to Standard Chartered and Songbird, the Kazzaz family are likely to continue arguing that the two Guernsey registered entities committed misdeeds which cost their family dearly.
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