UAE

Man 'bribed passport officer to let him fly to Beirut to help treat his dying son'

The nine-year-old boy died a week before his father went on trial for bribing a passport control officer

Salam Al Amir
Salam Al Amir

September 17, 2017

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A businessman who bribed a passport officer to overlook his travel ban and allow him to fly to Beirut to provide bone marrow for his son’s cancer treatment did what any man would do in such a situation, his lawyer told Dubai Criminal Court.

"My client couldn't travel due to a ban that was imposed on him because of a bad cheque which bounced because he had no money left after he paid the bribe and after he borrowed a great amount of money to cover the costs of his son's treatment," said lawyer Nasser Hashim.
He said the Palestinian man was contacted by his nine-year-old son's doctors in Lebanon who told him he was the only matching donor.
"He had no other option, and he admits to every word in the charges sheet, but we can clearly see a lack of criminal intent in this case," he said, arguing that the UAE penal code spares punishment if a crime is committed without criminal intent.

"What happened to my client, can happen to any of us and it would leave us with one choice in very little time, to break the law or leave the child to death without trying to save him or at least see him, even if it meant going to jail," said Mr Hashim.
He said the chief prosecutor who investigated the case and filed the charges against his client, had personally worked on granting his client bail so he could see his son who had been transferred to Dubai Hospital where he died.

The chief prosecutor even attended the burial to offer his condolences to the father, the lawyer said.
Records show that in September last year the defendant paid an Emirati passport officer Dh60,000 to allow him to travel, then paid him another Dh60,000 in October the same year.

The passport officer denied a charge of accepting bribes in court.
In court last March, the businessman — whose age was not in disclosed in court records — admitted to offering bribes and told the court the bone marrow transplant failed and his son died.
"At least I managed to see my son before he died," he said.
A police lieutenant said the two defendants were arrested after surveillance cameras recorded  the employee taking a bribe from the businessman in a plastic bag.

A verdict is expected on September 24.

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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.”

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