UAE

Case of Dubai woman’s threats to ruin former boss’s life referred to lower court

Sacked German woman called former boss's wife and accused him of sexually assaulting her, court heard.

Salam Al Amir
Salam Al Amir

March 31, 2015

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DUBAI // A 31-year-old German woman accused of threatening to ruin a man’s life unless he paid her Dh3 million had her case referred to the Court of Misdemeanours on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said in records that N P had been threatening to wreck the lives of Iranian company manager F M, 48, and his family since September last year after he had sacked her as his personal assistant. She even called the man’s wife and accused him of sexual assault, it is alleged.

The Iranian told prosecutors that the woman claimed to have qualifications and BA degrees.

“I asked for her degrees but she kept stalling, then she started making problems with other employees and I saw her several times going through my personal laptop,” he said. After warning her several times, he suspended her and then fired her.

On September 3 last year he said he received a phone call from her asking him to pay her compensation of €500,000 (Dh1.95m) because she said he fired her without a valid reason.

“She threatened that if I didn’t pay her she would give away work secrets to my competitors,” said the Iranian, who added that she kept calling him and then started to demand that he pay her Dh3m or else she would ruin his and his family’s lives.

“She told me that she promised her family to return to Germany rich but because I fired her, she would go back empty-handed, therefore she wanted me to pay her that amount.”

F M said that the woman then called his wife and children and attempted to smear his reputation by saying that he tried to sexually assault her.

He said he tried to ignore her but when she even started calling his friends and company employees, he reported her to police, especially as she had also taken his laptop and two

iPhones from the company.

The Dubai Criminal Court gave no reason for the referral to the lower court.

salamir@thenational.ae

How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now

Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.

The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.

1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):

a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33

b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.

2. For those who have worked more than five years

c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.

Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.

Habtoor interview
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.

It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.

The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.

Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.

Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.

He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.

AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”

A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.

Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.

Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.

Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.

By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.

Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.

In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”

Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.

She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.

Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.

CourtsDubaiTechnology