HOUSE OVERSIGHT 012042 possibility of an appeal. The verdict capped a two-week trial that involved dueling accusations of fraud levied by high-profile attorneys on both sides, including the former White House counsel to President Obama. At the center of the high-stakes battle was San Juan Capistrano resident and entrepreneur Farooq Bajwa and a mobile payment system that he said would allow migrant workers in the Middle East to send remittances back home through text messages. Bajwa contended that InfoSpan, with support from outside investors, spent $87 million developing the business and technology. To launch the system, known as SpanCash, Bajwa partnered in 2007 with Emirates Bank, which is controlled by the United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund. It seemed the ideal collaboration for the Pakistani immigrant, who earned millions operating another Irvine company that manufactured computer components in the 1980s and 1990s The Gulf States rely heavily on migrants to work construction and other low-wage jobs, offering a ready-made market for SpanCash. InfoSpan aimed to allow migrants to transfer money back home far more cheaply than Western Union or hawala, a traditional Middle Eastern broker-to-broker money transfer system. A study from McKinsey & Co., cited in court records, projected annual revenue of $3.5 billion by the deal's fifth year, with InfoSpan receiving more than $2.8 billion in fees. But the relationship between InfoSpan and Emirates Bank soured and the bank cancelled the deal in 2009. A few days later, Emirates filed a criminal complaint in Dubai against Bajwa and a partner alleging that they defrauded the bank and misrepresented InfoSpan as an established business with a working technology. Two years later, InfoSpan sued in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and alleged that its technology was working and that it delivered its source code to the bank on servers. Emirates ended the deal, InfoSpan said, to launch its own mobile