MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuwait has asked the public prosecutor to open an investigation into a scrapped deal with US firm Dow Chemical that resulted in a USD2.2 bln fine, as per ArabNews.
Citing an unnamed high-ranking source, Al-Qabas daily said the government last week sent a large number of documents to the public prosecutor all the details about the deal.
The documents included the names of officials who have been associated with the USD17.4 billion joint venture. Kuwait and US petrochemicals giant Dow Chemical signed the deal in 2008 but the emirate unilaterally scrapped it later in the same year due to a political dispute between the government and parliament.
The International Chamber of Commerce, acting as an arbitrator, later ordered Kuwait to pay a penalty of USD2.2 bln for scrapping the deal. The government paid the fine in May 2013 although parliament had warned against making the payment before conducting a probe.
The oil-rich Gulf state's move comes six months after a parliamentary probe into the case urged the government to prosecute 24 ex-officials, including two former oil ministers and several top former industry executives.
The parliamentary probe report, debated by MPs in December, charged the officials of squandering public funds and making illegal profits.
As MRC informed before, in December 2015, Dow Chemical finalized the transaction to sell its ownership interest in MEGlobal to EQUATE Petrochemical Company K.S.C. and has received USD1.5 billion in pre-tax proceeds. Dow had previously announced its intent to optimize its ownership in its Kuwaiti Joint Ventures and the closure of this transaction represents progress toward delivering this commitment.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. As of 2007, it is the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue (after BASF) and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization (after BASF and DuPont). Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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