DUBAI // The property developer Abid al Boom was yesterday referred to the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour on a new charge of issuing fraudulent cheques. The chief executive of Al Boom Holdings was arrested on July 4 2008 and investigated over allegations that he had defrauded up to 3,500 depositors of Dh847m (US$230m). Dubai's chief prosecutor, Yousif Mohammed Foulaz, said yesterday that investigators now believed that the fraud value was more than Dh960m and affected 3,700 people. The inquiry, which took more than a year, has led to the latest charges: issuing fraudulent cheques and "breaching the trust of his business partners".
Work is now ongoing to settle Mr al Boom's debts. The announcement came a day after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, decreed that all of Mr al Boom's assets would be liquidated by a specially appointed judicial committee. The new charges follow those detailed before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour in March, which alleged that Mr al Boom had issued two cheques that bounced, one of which, for Dh330,196, was for a Bentley car.
Salem Salem al Sha'ali, Mr al Boom's lawyer, confirmed their receipt of the charge sheet from prosecutors. "We received the charge sheet today, which implicates Mr al Boom and nine others in this case, but we have not yet received the case file to review where the charges have come from to prepare our defence," he said. According to the decree, issued on Tuesday, a committee will collect all of Mr al Boom's funds and property, as well as all his financial statements.
The commission will prepare a list of people who are owed money and the amount of debt, then distribute the amounts to them. The commission also can collect on behalf of third parties, without contest to its decisions. No appeal is possible. The decree stopped all civil judicial and legal proceedings under way against Mr al Boom. Criminal proceedings are still allowed. Mr al Boom is being held at the Dubai central jail in Al Aweer, along with seven other defendants in the same case.
An interim committee, made up of members of the police, the Economic Department and the Department of Financial Control, had already recommended the liquidation of Mr al Boom's public property and assets to the Dubai Public Prosecution. Eisa bin Haidar, who represents the alleged victims of the fraud, said his clients were willing to resolve the issue through the commission and give up parts of the amounts owed to them.
Mr al Sha'ali said it would help the commission in sorting out Mr al Boom's finances if he and the other defendants were released on bail. "In no way can we remotely evaluate the value of Mr al Boom's assets due to a portion of them being held in police custody and the rest being unaccounted for," he added. newsdesk@thenational.ae
