A contract dispute over oil contracts to supply fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq recently ended with a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $28.8 million. The plaintiff in state court was the brother-in-law of Jordan's King Abdullah II. He had sued an American businessman, saying that the businessman made a contract with him for a partnership that would have an exclusive right to supply fuel to American troops. The king's brother-in-law claimed that the businessman then tried to push him out of the partnership and keep his share of the profits from the business.

According to the lawsuit, the businessman and another American partner paid more than $50 million in bribes to high officials in the Jordanian government. The plan was to buy a monopoly on supply lines for fuel traveling through Jordan to Iraq. The bribes were effective, and the partnership made millions on the exclusive fuel supply line.

On a side note, San Diego contract law attorneys have observed that congressional and Pentagon investigations have estimated that the graft-built exclusive fuel transport rights ended up costing the U.S. military more than $200 million in unnecessary fuel transport charges.

At trial, the plaintiff tried to characterize the defendant businessman as so competitive that he decided to turn on his partner, the plaintiff, and try to deprive him of his contractual share of the business partnership's profits.

The king's brother-in-law was originally brought into the partnership because of his useful connections to the Jordanian royal family. The connections were also effective in keeping the business's fuel transport rights exclusive.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged that the defendants formed a new company in the U.S. with a name so similar to the original partnership that it was intended to create confusion in the minds of people doing business with the partnership. In this way, the defendants attempted to steer the exclusive rights to transport fuel over to the new business, and exclude the original partner, the plaintiff.

The jury agreed with the plaintiff, and ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiff $28.8 million in profits that his contract had entitled him to.

Source: MSNBC "Oilman must pay $28.8 million in suit over Pentagon contract" 7/27/2011