Two: Bank Statements

Summary: Al-Mulla asked the bank where I had my account, Ahli United Bank, to give them copies of my bank statements. Breaking all the rules, some bank employee just printed off a bunch of statements (entitled "FOR INTERNAL BANK USE ONLY" and sent them to Al-Mulla.

Why did they do this? Heaven knows. They exhibited the bank statements in the legal case where I was asking for compensation for dismissal, just to prove I was taking my salary regularly. But I had never denied that I was and, had they asked me, I would have given authority to produce evidence that my salary was regularly paid. The likely explanation is that this shows the mentality of big business in Kuwait: they think they can do whatever they want, and no rules or regulations apply to them. The corruption is so endemic that illegal activity becomes casual and "normal". What is not normal is that people protest, like I did.

After I was fired by Al-Mulla, I applied for my severance settlement in the normal way. Al-Mulla refused to pay me anything (without saying why) so the matter went to court.

It is fairly obvious to me that Al-Mulla were relying on the false work absence complaint to get rid of me through deportation but when that corrupt conspiracy failed, they had to confront my severance case.

I was shocked when, at a routine hearing for the severance case, the Al-Mulla lawyer produced to the court bank statements from my account. I was never asked to produce these statements, and there was nothing to hide. All the statements showed was that I was receiving my salary in a normal way while working there. I had never denied this but, for some strange reason, Al-Mulla decided to get my bank statements.

As anyone knows, anywhere in the world (as far as I know) account statements can only be released to the account holder, or with permission of the account holder - unless there is a court order. No such court order was every sought, let alone obtained, in this case.

My bank in Kuwait was Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East. This had later merged with Ahli United Bank (AUB).

When I asked Al-Mulla lawyers how did they get my bank statements and why they did not ask me anyway, they ignored me. I then went to AUB and asked them, but they threatened me!

My bank, Ahli United Bank in Kuwait, threatened me (in unspecified ways) if I continued to make enquiries about how and why they released my bank statements to Al-Mulla.

On the advice of my lawyer, I made a legal complaint about the release of my bank statements. The statements that Al-Mulla got were marked “FOR BANK INTERNAL USE ONLY”.

My complaint escalated into a legal case and the authorities in Kuwait charged four employees of the bank, and one employee of Al-Mulla, with breaking the law of financial confidentiality. The Al-Mulla employee who was charged is Isam Al-Othman, the same person who conspired and signed false papers in the false work absence complaint.