KUALA LUMPUR: The criminal charges against the Spanish arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa, responsible for the US$14.9 billion "Sulu Award" fraud in the Madrid Criminal Court, Spain, today signify the commencement of justice for the 32 million people of Malaysia.
Describing today as a significant day for Malaysia, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said that Malaysia has full confidence in the Spanish justice system.
Azalina said that Stampa faces serious criminal charges for contempt of court and unprofessional conduct without qualifications, brought by the Prosecutors' Offices of Spain and Malaysia because he openly and intentionally defied several binding orders from the Madrid High Court.
"Stampa has been repeatedly informed that his appointment as an arbitrator was revoked, yet he decided to declare the award after moving the arbitration to Paris.
"He was paid over $2.5 million for this decision. His actions are unprecedented in the international arbitration system," she said in a statement today.
Stampa is named as a defendant in criminal proceedings in Spain brought by the Prosecutors' Offices of both Spain and Malaysia, facing charges of contempt of court and unqualified professional practice.
The Spanish High Court previously declared the annulment of Stampa's appointment as an arbitrator and ordered him to terminate proceedings as his sole right to act as an arbitrator was invalidated.
Stampa, who received over $2.5 million from the Sulu heirs' litigation-funded group (Therium), consciously refused to comply with that order.
The courts in France and the Netherlands also declared in June that Malaysia never agreed for the matter to be arbitrated, and therefore, the fake arbitration should not have taken place.