In re Kuwait Ports Authority (Kuwait Ports Authority and PIFSS v. Crowell & Moring), No. 22-mc-64 (D.D.C. 17 December 2025) — US discovery for the Cayman "Port Fund" litigation

THE PARTIES AND THE FUND (from the petitioners' application, which the firm did not concretely dispute). The Port Fund, L.P. is a Cayman limited partnership formed to invest in global infrastructure. KPA and PIFSS are two of its eleven limited partners, invested $125 million between them and hold over 60% of the fund. The general partner is Port Link GP. From May 2018 it was controlled by Mark Williams through Port Link Holdings USA. The investment manager was KGL Investment Cayman Ltd, in which Henry Ayliffe, a beneficial owner of Apache Asia Limited, acquired an indirect interest in 2018; the opinion refers to "KGLI Kuwait" as its former owner. The manager was dissolved in 2020.

THE PAYMENTS ALLEGED. In 2017 the fund's interest in a Philippine project (the "Clark Asset") was sold for several hundred million dollars. Proceeds sent to an account in Dubai were frozen by the Dubai authorities, "apparently on suspicion of money laundering and related concerns", and released in February 2019. Crowell was engaged in late 2017 to recover them. In July 2018 the investment manager sued the fund in Dubai, and the fund and general partner filed what "essentially admitted" liability of more than $56 million. In February 2019 nearly $60 million was paid to Wellspring Capital Group, of which, the petitioners say, Mr Williams holds every office. Apache invoiced $36.2 million, of which $14.55 million was directed to KGLI Kuwait and $21.65 million to a Hong Kong account of "Law Custodial Inc.", paid through Crowell's trust account. About $7.3 million went to fourteen other service providers. KPA and PIFSS sued in the Cayman Islands in October 2020, directly and derivatively; trial was scheduled for February 2026.

PROCEDURE. Magistrate Judge Meriweather recommended granting the § 1782 application (2024 WL 4183210, 6 August 2024); Judge Leon adopted the recommendation on 29 May 2025 (2025 WL 1529798) and held that Crowell had waived its objections by not raising them earlier. Crowell moved to quash and appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which held the appeal in abeyance.

THE RULING. The subpoenas impose no undue burden. The fiduciary-beneficiary exception (from Garner v. Wolfinbarger) overrides attorney-client privilege and work product as against the limited partners, because the fund's general partner held the fund's property in trust, and because KPA and PIFSS sue derivatively for the fund itself. "Complete mutuality is not a requirement." The court did not reach the crime-fraud exception. The ruling does not affect privilege "as to the outside world". The subpoenas were narrowed to the period up to the end of 2019 and to the "Disputed Services". Depositions of two named lawyers were limited to the same categories. Compliance was conditioned on a protective order confining use to the Cayman proceedings.

USE IN A REPORT: a US court's account of the claims of two Kuwaiti public investors in a Cayman fund. It decides a discovery dispute only; every statement about the payments is an allegation in the Cayman litigation, not a finding.

The opinion's description of the payments comes from the petitioners' application and was not tested; no court finding of wrongdoing by any person named in it is recorded here, and the outcome of the Cayman trial listed for February 2026 is not known to Kuwait Mirror. The same is true of the Dubai freeze, which the court describes as "apparently" on money-laundering suspicion. The ruling is useful for two things: as an authority that limited partners suing derivatively can reach a fund's lawyers' files through the fiduciary exception, and as a documented account of how two Kuwaiti public bodies are pursuing recovery of investments through the Cayman and US courts.