A Indian business tycoon facing jail over a Dh150 million ($40.8 million) Bitcoin money-laundering plot is to make a final appeal before Dubai's highest court next week.
Kuwaiti-born Balvinder Singh Sahni, widely known as Abu Sabah, was convicted of a string of financial crimes as founder and chairman of the Raj Sahni Group, a property development company.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined Dh500,000 by a court in Dubai in May. He is to be deported after serving his sentence.
In August, Dubai's Court of Appeal further ruled that the 30 accused in the case, including Sahni, must repay the full Dh150 million prosecutors say was laundered.
Dubai Court of Cassation will consider an appeal against the verdict against all 30 on December 31 and its decision will be binding.
The National has attempted to contact Sahni's lawyer for comment.
Court documents obtained by The National show a criminal investigation into the 53 year old's business practices was launched last December. It uncovered a network of illicit financial activity, using Bitcoin, between October 2018 and January 2019.
The inquiry followed a tip-off to Abu Dhabi's State Security Agency, which then accused 30 people of being behind the plot.
Records show the group laundered money in co-operation with organised crime groups in the UK. Funds of about Dh180 million from British-based drug traffickers were transferred anonymously via Bitcoin to five digital wallets owned by Sahni.
These funds were then transferred into cash by those apparently working for Sahni and delivered physically, in dirhams, to a rented apartment at a Dubai luxury hotel.
Sahni then deducted 4 per cent of the cash as profit and deposited the money into the accounts of three companies he owned.
The authority arrested 20 people, with 10 suspects still at large. All 30 were found guilty at trial, some in absentia, with prison sentences varying from one to five years.
The three companies owned by the Indian businessman – the Raj Sahni Group, Sabah Tower RSG and Reeva Realty FZ-LLC – were each fined Dh5 million on the orders of the court.
Sahni, a luxury car collector, often posted photos of his expensive vehicles on social media platforms. He made headlines in 2016 after buying the single-digit 5 Dubai licence plate for Dh33 million (about $9 million at the time).
Sahni was a familiar presence on Dubai's social scene, often seen wearing his distinctive royal blue kandura, baseball cap and matching trainers.
His Instagram feed is awash with videos flaunting his wealth to his millions of followers, shopping in luxury stores, and posing with lions and chimpanzees in private zoos.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
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The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
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