Former Tamweel chief granted bail in fraud case

Former chief executive of the home finance company and his four co-defendants were granted bail yesterday in their Dh42 million fraud trial.

DUBAI // A former chief executive of the home finance company Tamweel and his four co-defendants were granted bail yesterday in their Dh42 million (US$11.4) fraud trial. The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance granted bail to AS, 38, the former head of Tamweel and deputy chief of Istithmar World, a part of the investment company Dubai World; AN, 44, AS's former deputy at Tamweel; WG, 57, managing director of Vakson Freehold Properties; RR, 54, a Ukrainian; and MY, 40, a Pakistani.

The two former Tamweel executives and their three alleged co-conspirators are accused of defrauding the Dubai Commodities Centre and the Dubai Maritime City of about Dh42m through illegal commissions and fraudulent transactions. All have denied the charges. "All of the defendants were released," said Hamdi al Shiwi, AS's defence counsel. "Our argument was based on the fact that my client was charged with abusing his position as a public official with Tamweel, but the fact remains that he already left Tamweel on the dates on which the crimes allegedly occurred."

Mr al Shiwi told reporters after a court hearing on Monday: "My client is innocent. This case cannot stand, as prosecutors have been throwing these fraud allegations to create themselves a political standing; I have informed the court of this, and it's part of our defence." Judge Hamad Abdel Latif granted AS, AN, WG, RR and MY bail on the condition that each surrender his passport along with the passport of another person as a guarantee.

AS was earlier released on bail pending another, ongoing fraud trial, in which he is accused of corruptly obtaining Dh44m while he was Tamweel's chief executive. On Monday, he was remanded in custody after prosecutors brought the latest charges. Prosecutors allege that AS and AN embezzled Dh24m in a transaction involving land that Dubai Commodities Centre owned at Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dh18m in a deal involving land at Dubai Maritime City.

WG, RR and MY were charged with facilitating and abetting the crime as public officials working with Jumeirah Lakes Towers and with receiving kickbacks. WG is charged with committing the same offences in the Dubai Maritime City land deal. The prosecution case file, which includes the findings of the Dubai Finance Department's investigation in the case, alleges that while they were at Tamweel, ASand AN may have received illegal land-sale commissions totalling Dh30m from buyers of plots at Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Maritime City.

Tamweel was the official lender for the two projects and made a commission of only 1 per cent of sales, as the law specifies. According to prosecutors, A|S and AN crafted deals to sell land at Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Maritime City, fraudulently identifying Vakson Freehold Properties as the landowner and introducing Ash Investment, one of AS's companies, as agent in the deals, thus obtaining illegal commissions.

The Public Prosecution presented testimony from three witnesses, including a business manager who is in charge of property purchases for Abu Dhabi's royal family. The first witness, Mohammed Iftikhar, told prosecutors that while he was working at Dar Holdings and Investment, which is owned by AS, he was involved in processing payments coming from Vakson Freehold and depositing them in the company's investment accounts at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

Abdel Latif al Bana, a business representative of the Abu Dhabi royal family, testified that he purchased through AS a Maritime City plot worth more than Dh218m. He said he was told that the property was owned by Vakson Freehold. The Dubai Finance Department investigation indicates that Vakson did not own the land but facilitated the sale by acting as an owner while forging agreements. RR and MY are accused of also acting as landowners in fraudulent sales. According to prosecution records, they received payments totalling Dh15m for their roles.

Judge Latif adjourned the hearing to October 5 for the defence lawyers to review the case files. @Email:[e-mail]