London Court Finds for Kuwait’s PIFSS Against Al-Rajaan Estate in Secret Commissions Case
A London court ruled on 5 November that Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security established its case that former director general Fahad Al-Rajaan procured around $1 billion in secret commissions.
Mr Justice Jacobs of the Commercial Court described the case as “proven corruption on a breathtaking scale”. PIFSS, in a statement carried by KUNA, said the court had ruled in favour of all its claims; the court’s own summary says the claims were, “broadly speaking, successful”. In The Edge’s reading, the final sums are not yet set: the judgment gives a starting figure for each defendant’s liability, and the amounts to be entered after a further hearing in the week of 16 November will be lower once settlements PIFSS reached after the trial are taken into account.
The court found the commissions case established at trial
The judgment, [2026] EWHC 2847 (Comm), runs to 799 pages and 3,622 paragraphs. It was handed down on 5 November in claim CL-2019-000118, and the judiciary of England and Wales published an official summary alongside it. It follows what the judge called the longest Commercial Court trial for 20 years, some 133 sitting days, a full legal year.
The court found that Al-Rajaan, director general for 30 years from his appointment in 1984 until his retirement in January 2014, used his influence over how PIFSS invested its funds to procure around $1 billion in commissions for himself and his associates on money PIFSS placed with fund managers around the world. The payments were never disclosed to PIFSS and ran for around 20 years from the mid-1990s. There was no substantial dispute at trial, the judge wrote, that around $1 billion was paid and that Al-Rajaan received the lion’s share.
PIFSS’s pleaded case, quoted in the judgment, put the secret commissions known to date at approximately $1.036 billion, and the judge said its material aspects had been proved. Before trial, a May 2023 judgment had described the claims as totalling in the region of $874 million. The court applied Kuwaiti law to the claims in tort.
Claims succeed against the estate and 14 other defendants
In its overall conclusion, the court said PIFSS’s claim for substantial compensation, or for related relief, succeeds against Al-Rajaan’s estate and against 14 other defendants, one of them in respect of a claim for declaratory relief. The court’s summary groups those found liable as intermediaries who acted, or purported to act, as introducers of investment products, with companies they used, companies and individuals from two fund management groups, a bank employee, and a foundation Al-Rajaan formed in the Bahamas in 2013.
No relief was claimed against Al-Rajaan’s four children, joined as his heirs, but the court said they are bound by the result, in particular on the liability of his estate.
Not every defendant reached judgment. Two Swiss banks, and individuals who worked for them, were not part of the trial after successful challenges to the jurisdiction; a third bank settled in the early weeks of the trial, and a fourth in September 2026, months after the trial ended. A separate claim under the Insolvency Act 1986 over assets gifted to a trustee was not tried on its substance; the judge answered preliminary issues in it in PIFSS’s favour.
The judgment sets out figures the court describes as the starting point for each defendant’s liability. The figures for which judgment will be entered will be reduced, the court said, because PIFSS entered into settlements after the trial with two Swiss banks and related parties; the amounts paid under them will reduce the liabilities of some defendants.
Interest is also open. The Kuwaiti law experts agreed that the Kuwaiti Civil Code prohibits interest in civil matters, including on obligations arising in tort; PIFSS’s case is that it can claim interest under the English court’s discretion, and the parties agreed to defer that question. PIFSS’s statement said interest and expenses would be decided at subsequent hearings. The judgment is a first-instance decision.
PIFSS says it will pursue every step that follows from the ruling
Acting Director General Khaled Al-Mudhaf welcomed the ruling of the English Commercial Court in London in a press statement carried by KUNA late on 5 November. The suit was filed in 2019 and was led by the legal team of the Fatwa and Legislation Department against Al-Rajaan and his associates. After his death the case continued against his estate, represented by his wife and heirs, alongside the associates.
Al-Mudhaf praised the cooperation between the institution and the Fatwa and Legislation Department, whose legal team has followed the file for 11 years with the foreign law firms appointed to it. That mandate dates from Cabinet Decision No. 89 of 19 January 2015, which tasked the department and the institution with legal action over violations and suspected infringements of public funds, and with pursuing cases in England, Switzerland and other jurisdictions.
He said the institution is pressing ahead with every procedure that follows from the ruling and with recovering its rights. Protecting its funds and the rights of insured persons and retirees, he added, is a national responsibility on which it will spare no effort.
The court describes PIFSS as operating Kuwait’s social security system, which insures Kuwaitis for old age, disability, sickness and death. The institution’s website puts its beneficiaries at more than 650,000 a year, with more than 2.2 million transactions completed annually across more than 170 services.
London courts twice rejected the heirs’ jurisdiction challenge
A worldwide freezing injunction against Al-Rajaan was granted on 16 October 2019, just over seven years before the 5 November judgment. He died on 6 September 2022, the court recorded, having submitted to the jurisdiction and defended the claim until then. Orders of 26 March 2023 appointed his widow to represent his estate in the proceedings.
His four children challenged the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. The High Court dismissed the challenge on 16 December 2024, and the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal on 25 November 2025.
The trial ran from 17 March 2025 to 12 March 2026, the judgment records, and judgment was handed down almost eight months after it closed.
Milestones in the London case
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| 19 Jan 2015 | Cabinet mandate |
| 2019 | Suit filed |
| 16 Oct 2019 | Freezing order |
| 6 Sep 2022 | Al-Rajaan dies |
| 26 Mar 2023 | Estate representative |
| 16 Dec 2024 | Heirs’ challenge dismissed |
| 17 Mar 2025 | Trial opens |
| 25 Nov 2025 | Heirs’ appeal dismissed |
| 12 Mar 2026 | Trial ends |
| 5 Nov 2026 | Judgment handed down |
| Week of 16 Nov 2026 | Further hearing |
The 2015 date is Cabinet Decision No. 89; the 2019 filing is from the institution’s statement; the other dates are from published judgments of the High Court and the Court of Appeal, the 5 November judgment and its summary.
What to watch:
Week of 16 November 2026: a further hearing, after which the court will enter judgment for the final figures, reduced from the judgment’s starting points for the settlements PIFSS reached after the trial.
Findings and figures are from the judgment of the High Court of England and Wales (Commercial Court) of 5 November 2026, [2026] EWHC 2847 (Comm), and its official summary, published by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary; earlier judgments in claim CL-2019-000118 and of the Court of Appeal on appeal in it, dated 9 June 2020 to 25 November 2025, published by The National Archives; the Public Institution for Social Security’s statement of 5 November 2026 as carried by KUNA in Arabic and English; and the institution’s website. Durations and counts not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: High Court of England and Wales, Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, Public Institution for Social Security, KUNA, The National Archives, The Edge.
