Brunei takes sultan's brother to court

Brunei takes sultan's brother to court

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters): Brunei has sued Sultan Hassanal
Bolkiah's estranged brother Prince Jefri for alleged misuse of
funds and frozen his assets, the Prime Minister's Office said on
Thursday.

The legal moves marked a startling twist in a bitter public
split between the 53-year-old sultan and his youngest brother
which has thrown a spotlight on the oil-rich sultanate's finances
and the royal family.

The Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that the state
of Brunei and the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) had started
civil proceedings against Prince Jefri, his son Prince Hakeem,
Jefri's former private secretary and more than 60 overseas
companies.

"The claims brought against His Royal Highness relate to the
improper withdrawal and use of substantial funds from the BIA,
which constitutes the state reserve fund, during the periods when
His Royal Highness was Minister of Finance and/or Chairman of the
BIA," the statement said.

"The proceedings were undertaken after efforts to find
solutions through other means had failed and had not produced any
satisfactory results," it said, adding that other individuals or
companies might later be linked to the proceedings.

The sultan, who is prime minister, sacked his youngest brother
from the BIA and a telecommunications empire in mid-1998 after
the prince's sprawling conglomerate Amedeo collapsed amid reports
of billions of dollars of losses.

The government later said investigations had revealed that
funds belonging to the BIA were used for non-government projects
and distributed to individuals and companies to buy overseas
properties.

Prince Jefri Bolkiah said he had been made a scapegoat by
Islamic conservatives backed by foreign advisers trying to
tighten their grip over the oil-rich sultanate on Borneo Island.

The prince's associates said Amedeo had been unfairly seized
and his spending habits were no more extravagant than his
brother's.

The statement said Brunei's High Court had frozen Prince
Jefri's assets in Brunei and overseas. "These include a
substantial number of residential properties overseas," it said.

The English High Court had frozen his assets in Britain, it
said. "Proceedings seeking similar orders in other countries may
also be necessary," it said.

Prince Jefri's interests include the Plaza Athenee hotel in
Paris, the New York Palace hotel and Asprey Plc, jeweler to
Britain's royal family.

Prince Jefri could not be reached for comment.

Since he was ousted from his positions of power in 1998, the
prince has sought to portray himself as a victim of Muslim
conservative rivals in the palace who took advantage of publicity
from two court cases which tarnished his reputation.

Prince Jefri was acquitted in the first case, brought by a
former Miss USA beauty queen who claimed she had been kept as a
sex slave in the sultan's palace. He settled the second case over
a $130 million commercial dispute out of court.

Prince Jefri reputedly owns 2,000 cars and 17 aircraft, and
owns a yacht called Tits, with tenders Nipple I and Nipple II.

The announcement of legal proceedings against Prince Jefri
came less than a week after another brother of the sultan's,
Prince Mohamed, released a candid report, endorsed by the
cabinet, saying the economic situation was "unsustainable".

The report by the powerful Brunei Economic Council called for
privatization, an end to subsidies and creation of a national oil
company.