HOUSE OVERSIGHT 030106 By Andrew Khouri August 11, 2016 A federal jury decided Thursday that one of the Middle East's most prominent banks did not commit fraud and steal technology from an Irvine firm that sued it for half a billion dollars in damages after their partnership collapsed. Orange County company InfoSpan had alleged that Emirates NBD ended a partnership for a mobile payment system because it didn't want to share revenue and stole InfoSpan's technology to launch its own service. The Dubai-based bank, in turn, denied it stole or ever used InfoSpan's technology. It argued that it cancelled the partnership because InfoSpan couldn't produce a working product and misled it into thinking it was an established company, not one with little to no track record. After deliberating for a day, the jury unanimously decided that InfoSpan did not prove its case of fraud and theft of trade secrets. InfoSpan had asked for $540 million in damages. An attorney for InfoSpan declined to comment on the 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 c