Message from Majed Halawi to Martin Betancourt. October 3, 2011. Re: BTU and Wael Al Mazeedi.

Who in the world is Majed Halawi?  What common interests did he and Wael Al Mazeedi have?  When did they first meet?  Why does this matter?

Majed Halawi does not know what information has been deposited by Betancourt in US Federal Court.  Given that he currently works (and presumably lives) in Saudi Arabia, he may not care what documents have been deposited with the court.  For all intents and purposes he is completely out of the jurisdiction of Federal and State courts.  Or, as he's already alluded, this is all in the past and of no importance.  Meaning, perhaps, that the statute of limitations has taken care of everything : )

Something to keep in mind.  PSEG was 60% owner of Carthage Power Company until it was sold to BTU and Wael Al Mazeedi.  As General Manager of CPC Majed was accountable to both PSEG as well as Marubeni.  In other words, he was obligated to protect he business interests of PSEG as well as Marubeni.... NOT BTU's and Wael Al Mazeedi's.

from Betancourt's Second Revised Affidavit (paragraph 27):

...I printed a number of documents pertaining to improprieties in the purchase of the Tunisia power plant, and took them home... I turned them over to this Court when ordered to do so...

 ... I noticed that prior to the acquisition certain emails from a high-level employee of the plant's prior owner (which by chance was my prior employer, PSEG), had been sent from private rather than corporate email accounts to Mr. Al Mazeedi and others at BTU. BTU had provided this high-level employee [i.e. Majed Halawi] (who was also serving as general manager of the Tunisia plant) with PSEG's negotiating proposals, apparently to secure his advice as to how BTU should respond. Among other things, the high-level employee was using his access to the plant's budgets and escrow accounts, PSEG information and discussions with PSEG executives in charge of the sale of the Tunisia plant to evaluate and recommend pricing levels and bargaining positions to Mr. Al Mazeedi and BTU. It also appears that he was assisting Mr. Al Mazeedi and BTU with the drafting of correspondence to PSEG. It became clear that Mr. Al Mazeedi had secured confidential business information from this insider at PSEG, which gave Ventures an unfair advantage in conducting negotiations for the acquisition of the plant. I knew all the principals from PSEG involved in the transaction quite well as I had worked for PSEG for over three years. Furthermore, I had worked closely with the high-level employee while developing PSEG's strategic business plan for the Middle East and North Africa during the time I worked in PSEG's London, UK office...

Majed Halawi's unsolicited message to Martin Betancourt (to "clarify" the record)

The following comes from LinkedIn
Majed Halawi’s message to Martin Betancourt:
Majed Halawi withdrew this introduction:
The need has been filled

On 10/03/11 2:27 AM, Majed Halawi wrote:
--------------------
Martin, by pure coincidence I came across your complaint against BTU. I know that it was some years now. However I would like to clarify some points, just for the record since you obviously refer to me in one paragraph.

First, It was I who introduced BTU to PSEG and BTU to the idea of acquiring PSEG's share in Rades since I knew that PSEG was keen on exiting. By that time, I was no longer a PSEG employee. I had resigned from PSEG first in October-November 2001, but was asked to remain for an additional 6 months precisely because the Rades project had not acchieved PCOD. I left PSEG finally end of April 2002. Incidentally, I was introduced to BTU through Howard Steinberg.

Second, it is true that I helped BTU in pushing the deal forward to the extend that I introduced them to STEAG, the German O&M operator, reviewed some of their correspondences with BTU, etc. This was largely out of the good relationship I developed with the BTU team, Tim Allaire, Ramzi al Badr and R. DeMeyere. By the time the deal was concluded, I had no illusion about my ability to work with BTU/W. Al Mazeedi despite his insistence that we could form a great team to develop IPP projects in the MENA region, which was the reason Howard put me in thouch with him in the first place. Indeed, he Al Mazeedi had brought a friend of his at the time, T. Abdul Hamid from KBR, to run the BTU Dubai office, the position that Al Mazeedi wanted me for, before the deal was consumated with PSEG. Had I wanted to put together another a parallel offer to PSEG, I could have. Stupid me that I did not. I will always regret this lack of initiative/creativity on my part.

3. I never got a penny from BTU despite all my help, whether in Tunis or elsewhere (Morocco and Qatar in particular). FYI, it was aslo I who introduced BTU to Marubeni, which led to them working together in Abu Dhabi.

4. David Seabrook was the person who negotiated the deal on behalf of PSEG. I, as GM of CPC, could not have given BTU any document that they would not have received eventually from PSEG directly once the agreement in principle was reached. I believe that your refer to CPC budget, FM and other information.


5. I stayed on as GM of CPC for a year after BTU takeover of PSEG share since it was seen that a stable period of transition was required to get Lenders' approval for the purchase. I did not get anything extra above the salary I was getting from CPC.


6. The final straw between me and Al Mazeedi came in June 2004, very shortly after the acquisition. Typical. He worked very hard to fire me (of course without paying me). The only reason he could not was because he did not have 75% super majority as required by Tunisian Law and Marubeni refused his request. If anything, I partly put up with the situation in deference to Marubeni.


Last but not least, all this has no importance now. I just wanted to clarify some facts and misconceptions it seems you have.


Best