Saade dispute

Dubious associate

The entire affair has linked Johnny Saade with a person, who has many question marks regarding his reputation. Jean Giorgi, who often appears in this affair, seems to have an important role in it. The Lebanese – Syrian man is presented as the CEO of Mistral Holding, Johnny's company.

Giorgi, a 67 year old was born in the northern Syrian port city of Latakia. His name was cited during a Johnny Saade vs. CMA-CGM trial.

French sources claim that during the 1980s Giorgi was sentenced to five years of prison (by default, not being present at the trial) for having embezzled money from "Curtins-Martin" a company he owned and which had filed for bankruptcy. A French newspaper wrote about this in the 1980s. Menargues in his interview with the Lebanese newspaper also mentioned Giorgi's dark record.

To sum up, the Saades' clash is likely to continue in the future despite the fact that courts in the USA and Europe have ruled for the benefit of JacquesSaade. It seems the losing side (Johnny Saade) is far from laying down the "intrigues weapons". However, it seems that he approaches to the stage that all of his "magazines" will remain empty. His desperate situation has also likely forced him to connect with dubious people and the question is if Johnny Saade is well aware to this fact.

Menargues himself spoke about the issue with the Lebanon-based Al Akhbar daily. The article was published on September 27  Johnny Saade and Menargues

The paper which reviews the campaign against the Frenchman reveals that the blogs "quoted" an Egyptian newspaper named "al Massir" to back the claims about Menargues' wrongdoings. However, Al Akhbar mentioned that that based on Egypt's Journalists Federation – such a paper does not exist in the country…

Menargues told to Al Akhbar that the main reason for him to stop writing the book was the fact that Johnny Saade and his close aide Jean Giorgi provided him with false information on the case. In addition, Menargues disclosed that Giorgi is wanted in France for forgery crimes. 

According to Al Akhbar, Menargues believes that this latest campaign against him is connected to his decision not to write the book for Johnny Saade. He stressed he plans to file lawsuits in Europe for the damages caused to him by this "vicious" attacks.

According to sources familiar with the dispute, Karim, the son of Johnny, plans to make a movie about this case.

In any case, during November 2006, Johnny Saade and Ménargues modified the contract to agree on content updates and add about 40 pages to the book. However, according to sources close to the deal, it seems that Johnny and the 60 year old journalist have recently reached strong disagreements. Menargues, who during the 1982 Lebanon war was serving as a correspondent in Beirut, decided not to go further with the book. As a result, it seems Johnny Saade himself will rewrite part of the book already prepared by Menargues. Johnny Saade intends to publish the book by his own. An article published on September 21 by the Bakchich magazine on the internet reported in this regard that Johnny Saade was seen recently in Paris, visiting a French Editor "les éditions du Cherche Midi". This disagreement between Saade and Menargues was recently confirmed by some blogs, which were attacking the French author. Sources who are familiar with the issue claim Johnny Saade is likely behind these attacks as in the past he used anonymous blogs to launch some verbal attacks on his business foes. In some blogs, Alain Menargues was described as "a liar". It was also written that he "signs contracts and wants big bucks to write a book, then disappears without sticking to its promises".
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Book or even film....?

The latest idea of Johnny Saade regarding the issue was to hire a French journalist to write a book about the conflict. In the course of August 2006, Johnny Saade hired by contract Alain Menargues. The book was to be entitled "The eye of Cain". The contract stipulated a retainer fee for the writing of the book, and royalties on the sales.

One of the articles in the contracts has forbidden Menargues to contact directly or indirectly Jacques Saade or any of his aides at CMA-CGM. Alain Menargues

According to a report in The Emerging Markets website, Ménargues served as vice-director of Radio France International, but was dismissed in October 2004 after publishing his book “Le mur de Sharon” (“Sharon’s Wall”). The writer was accused of “anti-Semitism” by Jewish groups and Ménargues was dismissed from his functions. In the Arab World, Ménargues' book was well received and it won the Palestine-Hamchari Literary Prize in December 2004. The prize, created in 1979 at the initiative of the Franco-Arab Solidarity Association, bears the name of the PLO delegate, Mahmoud Hamchari, assassinated in Paris in 1972 by Mossad (Israel's secret intelligence agency).

Trial in Lebanon

Observing that the financial results of CMA-CGM were improving over the years, Johnny Saade felt that he made a bad deal in 2000 when he signed the settlement. So in 2004, he filed a lawsuit in Lebanon to cancel the settlement. Last June, unhappy with the fact that the trial was not going to be in his favor, Johnny Saade asked for the replacement of Judge Habib Mezher, who was in charge of the case. A few weeks before the 28th of June - the date when a Lebanese court was to pronounce its judgment in the case, Johnny Saade asked for the replacement. After the latter refused to quit, Johnny asked the Court of Cassation to transfer the trial to another court. On June 21st 2007, his claim was approved.

This should not be a surprise as Karim Saade, Johnny's son married in May 2007 with Tania Kheir, the niece of the First President of the Lebanon Court of Cassation, Antoine Kheir (see Albawaba from Sept. 5). The 67 year old magistrate was nominated during 2005.

Late 2006, an English court order prevented Johnny Saade and any of his associates from continuing their alleged campaign of harassment against his brother which has been intensified. The court order also prevented Johnny Saade from spreading allegations through such means as letters, the internet and newspaper articles. This decision refers to many blogs in the internet that were likely initiated by Johnny Saade and published false information of the fight against his brother. Some sources even claimed that Johnny Saade also distributed thousands of leaflets in the street regarding the issue!

On 11 July 2007, a new Interim Order has been issued by the High Court of Justice of London. It reads that it is forbidden for Johnny Saade to lead directly or indirectly any prejudicial action against the rights of Jacques Saade and/or the CMA-CGM all over the world. The order addressed by court to Johnny Saade says: "If you disobey this Order you may be found guilty of Contempt of Court and you may be sent to prison or fined or your assets may be seized".

Several lawsuits were filed in France and have all been lost by Johnny Saade and his company Mistral Holding. For example, Mistral Holding has already been condemned for defamation in France in January 2007 by the Court of Marseilles – judgment which was confirmed in April and June 2007.

Johnny Saade has also been condemned in France after having launched a lawsuit against his brother; In September 2006, not only the court of “Aix en Provence” declared that Jacques Saade was not guilty, but the judge also fined Johnny Saade (€15,000) for launching abusive lawsuits….

Court decisions

As mentioned, all lawsuits initiated by Mistral have allegedly been unsuccessful. For instance, the case was earlier this year discussed in an American court, a recent report in prestigious Financial Times Global Media Monitor has indicated. Following several notifications to Mistral Holding and Johnny Saade without any response, a judgment by default was issued on 7 May 2007 by a court in Texas, US. which jointly condemned Mistral Holding and Johnny Saade to pay US$ 31.562.019,90 plus interest starting from the date of the judgment of each of Jacques Saade, the CMA-CGM and the CMA-CGM (America) Inc., the total amount being US$ 95 millions.

The court decision also slammed Johnny Saade's activities. "Defendants published numerous factual statements about plaintiffs on defendants' website in Texas…..that are demonstrably false and defamatory", the court decision read. "the statements are demonstrably false because they accuse plaintiff Jacques Saade, individually and his capacity as the chairman of CMA CGM, of crimes and other misdeeds in the course of his business that plaintiff have denied and that have been rejected by courts in France and elsewhere", it added.

But how this all started?

Johnny Saade has launched a series of accusations and lawsuits against Jacques Saade since their feud began in 1996, following CMA's takeover of French state-run CGM, a move he disagreed with. He followed with a series of claims through his company Mistral about the CMA-CGM's financial status and management, then sued the French state after repeatedly failing to win judgments.

In 2000, it seemed the struggle was over after Johnny Saade finally sold his stake in the company for about US$ 40 million. But it was not the case. Just that year, Johnny Saade was involved in some 70 trials against his brother in France, Syria and Lebanon.

Since then, Johnny Saade continued to come up with many pretexts to attack Jacques Saade or the CMA-CGM. However, so far Mistral (Holding) has suffered setback after setback in courts.

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The much publicized dispute between brothers and Lebanese businessmen Johnny Saade and Jacques Saade has been refusing to go down from the headlines of the international and Arabic press. What started as a family feud has gradually developed into a bitter business row over the ownership of the world’s third largest container line.

Jacques Saade and Johnny Saade are descendants of a family from the northern Syrian city of Latakia. They both belong to the Greek Orthodox community. Their father Rodolph Saade , inherited of the business from his own father Gabriel who had made fortune in the outset of last century thanks to the flourishing trading relations between Syrian ports and Alexandria port in Egypt. The Saades owned fertile pieces of land, with cotton, tobacco and olive tree.

However, the relations between the brothers started to deteriorate when their father died. The situation became even worse when their mother, Odette, passed away as it seemed she was the only person who could interfere in their increasing fights.

Now as the "bad blood" between the two spills over for about a decade, one can conclude – based on court decisions – that in this ordeal there is a "bad guy" (Johnny Saade) and a "good guy" (Jacques Saade). These decisions indicate that Johnny Saade, the younger brother, has been used to harass and blackmail his much more successful brother. After he lost all his trials and been slammed by different judges, Johnny Saade is now using dubious means to tarnish his brother's image.

To be followed ...

You'll find on this blog the descrtiption of an incredible harrassment story. It's a story between two brothers, Johnny and Jacques Saade. The first one runs a very small shipping company, his elder brother Jacques is the founder and owner of the third shipping company of the world .
These pages are based on a very interesting article of Albawaba, a Middle East Newspaper.

Saade feud – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.... is the title of this article...

To be followed soon !

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