Anti-Piracy Partners Head To The Courts, As U.S. Businessman Sues Gulf Lawyer

A former U.S. Army Special Forces member is suing one of the most high-profile lawyers in the Gulf and seeking $67 million in damages, over allegations that the lawyer used improper means to destroy a business the two of them had set up.

Scott Butler has filed cases in the Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts and the New York County division of the Supreme Court of New York against Essam Al-Tamimi, the founder of one of the largest law firms in the Middle East, Al-Tamimi & Company, which has 17 offices in ten countries.

A UAE-based bank, Invest Bank, is also named in both suits. It is headquartered in Sharjah and chaired by a member of that emirate’s ruling family, deputy ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al-Qasimi.

“My investor experience in the UAE has been an absolute nightmare,” said Butler. “What happened to me could happen to anyone.”

Fighting piracy

The relationship between Butler and Al-Tamimi began around 2000, when together they set up a company called Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance (APA), which specialized in tackling the sale of counterfeit goods in the Gulf countries.

It grew to have a staff of more than 50 people working across eight countries. Its clients included the likes of Nike, Microsoft and the Oxford University Press.

However, Butler’s lawsuit claimed Al-Tamimi consistently refused to invest money, effort, or time in Arabian APA.

By June 2010, after Butler and Al-Tamimi had started negotiating to terminate their business relationship, Al-Tamimi “decided to go to war with Butler”, the law suit claims.

From 2010 to 2022, Al-Tamimi launched nine lawsuits against Butler in the UAE and Bahrain. Some claims were held up by local courts while others were dismissed.

Butler’s law suit also claims that Al-Tamimi used his political connections in the UAE to facilitate his arrest and imprisonment in Dubai and the confiscation of his passport.

Butler also claims Al-Tamimi unilaterally registered Arabian APA in the British Virgin Islands and awarded himself a 50% stake in the business, rather than the 35% specified in their original shareholders agreement.

Among the other allegations in the law suits is a claim that Al-Tamimi and Invest Bank worked together to seize a villa which Butler had bought in Dubai and which he had lent to the business to be used as collateral for loans.

“The villa I paid for was stolen,” said Butler. “There have been no consequences for the theft, for weaponizing the legal system.”

By 2016, Butler had set up two new companies, Arabian Company and American APA, which operate in the Middle East region and also provide anti-counterfeiting services to multinationals. It has since worked with clients in the region such as Hewlett Packard, Procter & Gamble and Apple.

However, Butler’s suit alleges that “To this day, Al-Tamimi continues to interfere with American APA’s current and prospective clients by insisting that they not do business with Butler.”

Butler’s case claims that Al-Tamimi has a number of connections to Massachusetts, including owning a personal residence at the Harvard Club in Boston.

Neither Al-Tamimi or Invest Bank had responded to enquiries from Forbes about the law suits at the time of publication.