Briton to be extradited from Thailand to UAE in two weeks



BANGKOK // A British man arrested in Thailand in connection with the embezzlement of US$2 million (Dh7.3m) from a Dubai-based property company is expected to be extradited to the UAE within two weeks. Michael Bryan Smith, 43, was arrested in a Bangkok stakeout last week after nearly a year since leaving the UAE. He is now likely to be returned to the UAE to face charges of forgery, betrayal of trust and the illegal possession of public funds.

The charges relate to $2m missing from a company he worked for in Dubai, according to Dubai Police. The amount was previously reported to be as much as $150m. Mr Smith is accused of transferring workers' salaries into his own account while working as a personnel manager in a property company in Bur Dubai between March and May of last year, according to the UAE arrest warrant. Police did not identify the company. Mr Smith denies the charges, according to Thai police.

He appeared in a criminal court last Thursday and was remanded into custody for 60 days pending an extradition hearing. He was refused bail because he was regarded as a potential flight risk, said the police chief in charge of his arrest, Lt Col Pirom Chantrapirom. A man in the Thai attorney general's office who identified himself only as Mr Poonpel, and who is in charge of the case, said he expected Mr Smith to be returned to the UAE within two weeks.

"The papers have been finalised and we are now waiting for the correct documentation from the Dubai authorities," he said. Mr Smith was arrested last Wednesday in a bar in Nana, a Bangkok red-light districts. UAE authorities tipped off Thai police that he was likely to visit the Big Dog bar, which was known to be one of his regular haunts. According to the police officer in charge of the arrest, Thai detectives had been staking out the location for several days before he turned up. They acted on information provided by UAE authorities, and identified him using a copy of his passport, the officer said. He did not resist arrest, police on the scene said.

Mr Smith had left the UAE after the alleged crime, and police had been looking for him for several months before investigators traced him to Bangkok and alerted the authorities there, a senior police official in Dubai told reporters on Monday. "After learning that he escaped to Bangkok, a request for his arrest and extradition was placed through the Ministry of Interior on May 4. He is wanted on charges of forgery, betrayal of trust and the illegal possession of public funds for the amount of $2 million," the official said.

Although there is no extradition treaty between the UAE and Thailand, it is not unusual for suspects to be extradited after a diplomatic request, sources in Thailand's judiciary said. Thai courts have authority to decide on extradition. Mr Smith has retained a lawyer, according to court officials, and is expected to fight the extradition order. Since he left Dubai, Mr Smith has travelled extensively, visiting Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand, Thai police say. He is married to a Thai woman and arrived in Thailand in April to join her.

Mr Smith travelled around South East Asia for several years before he took the job in Dubai, according to a friend who also said Mr Smith was looking for work in the hotel business. He had recently been to China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam for job interviews, the man said. @Email:ljagan@thenational.ae

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THE LOWDOWN

Photograph

Rating: 4/5

Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies

Director: Ritesh Batra

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz

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Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

MO
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Terminator: Dark Fate

Director: Tim Miller

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis 

Rating: 3/5

THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick

Hometown: Cologne, Germany

Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)

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Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk

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The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China

Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion

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Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015

His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016

Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017

Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25

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Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

RESULTS

5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000, 2,400m
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5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000, 2,200m​​​​​​​
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6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000, 1,400m​​​​​​​
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7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000, 1,600m​​​​​​​
Winner: Optimizm, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

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Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed 

Women & Power: A Manifesto

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Profile Books and London Review of Books 

The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid

When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

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Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Green ambitions
  • Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
  • Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
  • Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
  • Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water 
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ARGENTINA SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Franco Armani, Agustin Marchesin, Esteban Andrada
Defenders: Juan Foyth, Nicolas Otamendi, German Pezzella, Nicolas Tagliafico, Ramiro Funes Mori, Renzo Saravia, Marcos Acuna, Milton Casco
Midfielders: Leandro Paredes, Guido Rodriguez, Giovani Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Roberto Pereyra, Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Di Maria
Forwards: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Lautaro Martinez, Paulo Dybala, Matias Suarez

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners

The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Xpanceo

Started: 2018

Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov

Based: Dubai, UAE

Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality

Funding: $40 million

Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)

FORSPOKEN
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Marvel's%20Spider-Man%202
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Assassin's%20Creed%20Mirage
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Starfield
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COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

ANATOMY%20OF%20A%20FALL
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The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre turbo

Power: 181hp

Torque: 230Nm

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

Starting price: Dh79,000

On sale: Now

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The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Crocodiles can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Company%20profile
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