The investment arm of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris's family opened its case in a London court this week, telling judges it is owed about $150 million after being duped into financing a foreign exchange business that outsiders secretly controlled and used to extract fees.
The claimants, Voltaire Capital Holdings Ltd. and Gemini Investment Holding Ltd., the Sawiris-linked vehicle that put money into Voltaire, laid out their case on Monday, October 12, at the opening of a trial in the Commercial Court division of the High Court in London. The case is being heard under the name Voltaire Capital Holdings Ltd. and others v. Eric Watson and others.
According to legal news service Law360, which is covering the proceedings, the family office describes the case as a complex foreign exchange fraud in which 14 defendants conspired to defraud them of more than $100 million. The chambers of the barristers acting for the claimants has listed the hearing as a 10-week trial beginning in October 2026.
The claimed amount has grown over time. Earlier reports in New Zealand put the claim at about $100 million to $101 million. Law360 now puts the amount claimed at about $150 million, though it did not specify whether that figure includes interest.
Court filings described by business publications lay out the underlying investment: Gemini says it invested about $132 million between 2014 and 2019, including later capital injections, and alleges that about $101 million was lost. The family office contends it was misled about who really controlled the foreign exchange operation and about how fees were being extracted from its capital.
Eric Watson, the lead defendant, is a well-known figure in New Zealand business circles with a long history of controversial dealings. Neither Watson nor the other defendants had, at the time of the trial's opening, been reported as having issued a public response to the specific allegations in this case.
The trial is expected to run for ten weeks and will feature testimony from financiers, lawyers and experts on foreign exchange markets. For the Sawiris family, whose fortune spans telecoms, construction and investments across Africa, the Middle East and Europe, the case represents one of the largest fraud claims ever brought by a family office in a London court. A ruling is not expected until well after the trial concludes, and the case is being closely watched by the family-office and private-wealth world as a test of how London's Commercial Court handles sprawling, multi-defendant fraud claims.