DUBAI // A man said he had magical powers to bring money down from the stars in an attempt to con his victim out of US$75,000, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Sunday.
M S, 44, and his alleged accomplices M A, 35 and A A, 41, all from Sudan, are charged with possessing $465,300 (Dh1.7 million) in fake banknotes and of attempted fraud.
H A, 42, an Omani, said three months before Ramadan he began receiving calls from one of the defendants telling him that he could make him rich.
“He told me that he had powers to bring money through the stars and that he was a famous religious man who had a great knowledge of astronomy,” said H A.
“He asked me for cash to buy holy water and other things to use in order to increase my money. I ignored him, but he kept calling and then he asked to meet me.”
Eventually, H A agreed to meet one of the defendants in Al Ain, who asked for Dh7,000 to buy the necessary materials. H A refused and left, but 20 days later the defendant called him again and asked for another meeting.
“I went along and then he showed me something that looked like saffron and said that he had bought it for Dh3,500 so he could use it to increase my wealth,” said H A.
“He asked if I wanted to buy it but I again refused. He called me again at the beginning of Ramadan and so I called Dubai Police, who asked me to play along so that the man could be arrested.”
H A was then contacted by a second defendant, who also promised to make him rich. This man initially asked H A for $135,000 then agreed to reduce it to $75,000.
He told him the cash would be used to buy a chemical to remove a United Nations stamp from the hundreds of thousands of dollar bills he had in his possession.
“They showed me two bills with this stamp and then used a powder to clean off the black stamp. I informed the police who told me to proceed with the agreement so that they could arrest the men,” said H A.
On August 7 the three men were arrested in Al Baraha area during a meeting with H A.
“One of them was seen heading to his car and picking up a box, which contained the fake dollars,” said A M A, 27, an Emirati police officer. “We arrested them although they resisted and tried to run away.”
All three defendants denied the charges.
“I’ve never seen this cash before,” said M S.
The next hearing will be on November 2.
salamir@thenational.ae
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If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
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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.”
