Corruption
Corruption scandal rocks Dubai
Corruption is supposedly unheard of in the state of Dubai. Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and the ruler of Dubai, has a strong handle on the way his emirate runs from all standpoints--economic, financial, government, practically everything that reflects image.
However, once in a while, a few unscrupulous and careless business “practitioners” slip through the cracks unmindful of the mines ahead. I can recall a few years back while residing in Dubai, a previous director general of the Dubai’s civil aviation, a general manager of one of the first-ever built, exclusive golf courses/resorts, several five-star hotel managers and mega-mall operators were indicted for corruption, fraud and misappropriating excessive funds.
Just like any booming capitalistic state, Dubai is not quite immune to the disease of corruption, as new developments prove. Last September 11, the United Arab Emirate’s financial giant Tamweel's deputy CEO, Abdulla Nasser Abdulla, has been detained as part of ongoing investigations into corruption in Dubai's booming real property market. Local papers have brought the spotlight firmly back onto the negative side of the emirate's economic success story. News of the deputy CEO's detention in connection with financial irregularities hit the group's shares hard on the Dubai Financial Market.
The scandal hit the press less than a month when two former Tamweel executives--Adel Al Shirawi, then Tamweel's chief executive, and Feras Kalthoum, the finance company's head of investments, were detained.
Tamweel Properties & Investments is a wholly-owned subsidiary and is Dubai's largest mortgage lender and a central part of the emirate's booming real estate market, said Edward Poultney, editor of Emap Limited. “Investigations form the latest act in the Dubai government's crack-down on instances of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of position as it attempts to improve transparency and strengthen investor confidence in the property sector,” he said.
Earlier in April, the Khaleej Times reported that Nakheel Poroperties, the Dubai-based real estate developer which has teamed up with US property magnate Donald Trump to sell condominiums on its $12.3 billion artificial Palm-shaped island, was at the center of a crackdown on alleged corruption in the emirate. Two people were arraigned on suspicion of bribery days before a high-profile sales team led by its CEO, Chris O’Donnell, headed to the US to lure investors to Dubai’s $300 billion property boom.
But, according to Stephen Atkinson, CEO of Arabian Real Estate Investment Trust, Dubai is relatively transparent. “When you talk about transparency in the property sector, Dubai still leads the market, which is an improvement,” Atkinson said at the recent Cityscape USA in Manhattan.
On ranking business transparency levels in Middle East countries, Dubai lawyer Mohamed Kamal, partner, Al Tamimi & Company, citing Jones Lang LaSalle’s survey, said that Dubai is nowhere near the top five positions. Globally, the top five positions belong to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA and the UK. Dubai is further down the scale at 32. He said: “A useful indicator in terms of where Dubai is, with respect to other jurisdictions, shows a rank in line with where Singapore is. Dubai is seen with similar real estate markets as Singapore and Hong Kong. Abu Dhabi is at 54. The other emirates are at rank 72.” Dubai has tried to bolster its regulatory framework from a foreign investors perspectives - used to safeguards, consumer protection legislation, build quality standards, and an environment conducive to lending and sustaining growth appreciation.
“Dubai is almost complete in legislation. One of the laws came about last year in which developers register projects and obtain approvals; it was followed by an escrow law set for purchasers for properties in Dubai who make payments towards construction,” said Kamal, adding that these laws have certainly slowed down launches of projects in Dubai, as well as made processes the developers undergo very stringent. There’s greater transparency on who is actually approved.
“From an investor’s point of view, you have comfort in knowing they have been through the process,” said the attorney. Over 700 developers registered in Dubai are currently asked to go through the approval process.
Another important piece of legislation designed to protect investors in Dubai from paper trading, which is when people put down deposits of 10-25 percent for a simple contract, has been passed. The paper would have been traded as they would have had in the futures market which begs the investors’ question: How secure is a contract in Dubai? Some developers did not deliver. Some engaged in double-selling when they would cross a buyer’s name off the list then resell the same property to some other buyers over and over again. Risks involved in paper trading scams are now covered by Dubai’s new escrow law.
Last month, another legislation has made it mandatory on all purchasers to register their contract with the lands department. Kamal said: “The biggest factor and safeguards are the implementation of the laws. We are at a stage with a complete set of legislation.” Investors, however, may need to check out the practical applications of the escrow law, the resolution of disputes and issues of developments. Dubai has not yet seen many cases of breaches. But there are a few. In terms of the real estate landscape in Dubai, a lot of companies are public companies; a majority is private who increasingly try to promote transparency in terms of business practices, added Kamal.
When asked if a defendant could win his case against the owner who may be the ruling family, Kamal said: “The initiatives of Sheikh Mohamed maintain fair treatment of legitimate claims, disputes and dispute resolutions. We have seen cases of arbitration where foreign investors try to protect contractual rights. There is a view that chances of success can be slim if you are trying to take on a Sheikh or a firm with majority of the shares owned by the Sheikh. But certainly the move of all companies is to be accountable and to allow due process of legitimate claim.”
Egyptian national Karim Masaad worked for Nakheel Properties, which is owned by the Sheikh. Nakheel said he “resigned” as a sales executive and questioned in connection with alleged wrongdoing while working for the developer. Masaad was the second person held by Dubai authorities in the Nakheel investigation. Walid al-Jaziri, Nakheel’s general manager for sales, was also questioned, according to the Khaleej Times. “Nakheel sits at the heart of the multibillion business empire of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Makhtoum and is a cornerstone of his plan to make the emirate an international business hub to rival New York and London.”
Walter Kleinschmit, founder of R2E Consultants Inc. revealed that Dubai commercial developer Damac Properties was guilty of delaying delivery of numerous housing inventory. Damac was “pulled over” by the court of public opinion to respond to this negligence. He said, “Emaar and other developers faced a major storm about 18 months ago and made to answer to this legal and social process.”
Recent arrests suggest that Sheikh Mohamed wants to clean up the emirate’s reputation in a bid to lure foreign investment. Dubai is aiming to double the size of its economy to $108 billion by 2015. To do this, it needs foreign money. And this cash would certainly come from the two billion people within a two-hour flight from Dubai. "The success of the current boom is making it unaffordable for people in the lower echelon to live there," said the R2E chair, adding, "But there are enough rich people who want a second home, or first home or want to acquire residential rights in Dubai. It is imperative to keep those people happy in a community that's welcoming and supportive."
Comments
itz been confirmed by several media reports that manal shaheen no longer works at nakheel. obviously she was forced to resign as who else would give up a job paying 150,000 or so dirhams a month (about $45,000 USD) when they have no reputable education or previous work experience?
hopefully one day the media world will tell the true story about manal taking billions of dollars in bribes and most probably embezzeling quite a bit of money as well.
some of the other commenters mention that alya mahdy was probably involved so itd be good to see her brought to justice as well.
please comment if you find out that alya mahdy has been fired from nakheel. its about time.
yay. word on the street is that manal shaheen has been fired from nakheel. unfortuntely she has escaped jail by paying back the bribes she took. she really embarrassed herself.
hopefully her sidekick alya mahdy has also been fired. if anyone knows if shes been fired or sent to jail please write a message on this website.
It looks like their still trying to chase Manal Shaheen and Alya Mahdy of Nakheel in connection with the bribes they've taken.
http://business.maktoob.com/20090000417566/Dubai_corruption_crackdown_at...
Hi Saeed,
Unfortunately many of the locals related to Sheikh Mohammed are not being convicted of any wrong-doing to avoid further embarrassment. Even though they stole 500 million from investors there are others close to the Sheikh who has stolen even more.
Manal Shaheen (Chief Operations Officer) and Alya Mahdy (General Manager of Sales) at Nakheel blocked all the land sales at Nakheel then sold hundreds of land plots in return for huge bribes. They also (at least attempted) to embezzle money out of Nakheel by buying it at below market value prices then reselling it to the public at inflated prices. Alya Mahdy's husband was a real estate agent and would have easily been able to assist in the process.
It is rumoured that Manal Shaheen is "untouchable" as she's friends with one of the Sheikhs daughters. This is how she was promoted from a secretarial position in the DIFC to the Head of Sales, Marketing and Customer Services in days.
If Manal and Alya still have their jobs, you have to wonder why the CEO Chris O'Donnell hasn't fired them? Maybe he's been taking some bribes as well? Who knows? Hopefully the truth will come out soon.
Given that so many people from Dubai know about the crimes committed by the sheikhs friends and family, one must wonder why he continues to be such a pussy. Isn't he in the slightest bit annoyed that they embarrassed him???
Interesting to read that dubai is transparent.
The question is why the ruling family members such as Sheikh maktoum hasher maktoum al maktoum and sheikh hasher maktoum juma al maktoum the brother in law of dubai ruler have cheated foreign investors in the ebony ivory towers of al fajer properties defrauding investors with 500 million dirhams using fake construction photographs. Why the courts and the police are protecting them? Where is the equality that dubai ruler was talking about? So being a sheikh is a license to steal?
Ok so all this Dubai bribery business is getting way out of control. I used to work with both Matt Joyce and Marcus Lee. I also worked with Manal Shaheen and her just as corrupt sidekick Alya Mahdy.
Now from my point of view, on my very first day of work at Nakheel I was asked by Alya Mahdy to help embezzle $1 billion Dirham, which is about $270 million USD. I soon realized that Manal Shaheen had blocked ALL land sales so that she could take 6% bribes on every land sale that went through Nakheel. Everyone knew that she was doing this.
Now what really pisses me off is the fact that Nakheels CEO is still Australian CEO Chris ODonnell. He obviously knows that Manal and Alya were stealing from the company and clearly lacks the balls to fire these people. Even worse is the fact that he hasn't done anything to help out his Australian friends Matt Joyce and Marcus Lee who are sitting in a filthy Dubai jail pretty much waiting to die. How can these guys be in jail for a bribe or a few million dirhams when Manal Shaheen and Alya Mahdy are walking around Scot-free (with their jobs!!!) as though they've never done anything????
Hopefully people will learn their lesson and never trust Dubai companies or their people ever again. I'm amazed that this hasn't been in even one newspaper ever!
Also hopefully people will realize what a money hungry, self centred gutless wimp Chris O'Donnell is; and what fat little corrupt monobrow midgets Manal Shaheen and Alya Mahdy are.
WAYNE tx for the article.... u are 1000 % right ..... hope everybody would know that ..... and the whole world ....
I can't believe how many people have been fired from Nakheel and that Manal Shaheen still has her job. How can someone that's taken so many bribes and has embezzled billions of dollars still be working there??? I guess that's because her Ninja outfit is a better justification for keeping her job than the fact that shes a terrible employee.
Also why does her sidekick Alya Mahdy still have her job when she was allegedly single handedly helping Manal with all these bribes? You have to wonder when someones promoted from Customer Services to General Manager don't you?
Nakheel Should come clean with the hard working investors who made it what it currently is.
They should announce and without delay the Indeed they have canceled the Badrah II project, cause no way they will complete it in by end of 2011 and they can not extend the delivery any further.
So all they are doing is frustrating the investors and trying to push them to so called consolidation. This is just not acceptable behaviour from someone like Nakheel. They will lose so much turst than what they already have lost with the investors, it will simply stupid for Nakheel to continue with Badrah II and other off plans projects , no investor will be crazy enough to continue paying them any further instalments, why would they, when they can get for the same price a finished, larger property in place like JBR or Dubai Marina.??
Time for Nakheel and those who are running it to come clean and by honnest for a change.
Time for the Dubai Governmet to also get invoved.
How the hell can so many people be in jail for corruption right now when Manal Shaheen of Nakheel blocked ALL land sales for a year and a half just so that she could take a bribe from every plot sale and still not be in jail. This has got to be one of the biggest fraud cover ups of all time.
What a fat, monobrow, corrupt monster!
i hear that manal shaheen has been place under house arrest along with the sultan who works for dubai world.
i hear that manal was found to have secret swiss bank account and she was made to repay the stoelen amount. everyone in dubai knows this.
"It wasn't too long before I realized that the massive amount of corruption that was going on was actually waaaaaaaay bigger than I thought it was. The Director of Sales and Marketing (Manal Shaheen) was allegedly embezzling billions of dollars worth of real estate on a regular basis. I was shocked! Not only had this lady been given a 10 million dollar villa on the Palm Island but now she was stealing from the Sheikh that was kind enough to give her a pretty damn expensive villa."
Interesting that you say this Wayne. Word on the street is that Manal Shaheen was recently placed under house arrest for taking bribes and embezzling funds at Nakheel.
I've just left Dubai after two years of absolute torture and this is the first article that makes me shake as it speaks more truth than most reporters are even aware of.
I'd love anyone that's ever considering going to the Middle East to please read what I have to say because if you don't you're life could be drastically worse.
Firstly, I moved to Dubai as I was made many enticing promises.... But who was I to question these promises when I was going to work for one of the worlds largest most reputable real estate consulting companies in the world. They were even on the Forbes 100 best companies to work for list! I just hope that in the future Forbes does better research on world-wide branches rather than just in their local area.
Anyway, I quickly realized that no large mult-national company was what it appeared to be. No matter whether it was a huge well-regarded bank or construction company, their CEO's and Directors would be lucky to be in mid-management in any Western country.
What really upset me though was that the majority of the Indian and Pakistani workers were basically slaves. Their companies had stolen all their passports so that had no ability to leave the country. But in most countries you'd just find a better job right? Not in Dubai. Without the permission of your employer you can't work anywhere else, can't get a bank account, can't rent an apartment and can't buy a car. Your world becomes your employer, so if you upset them, they will punish you. You are under complete control of your company.
It's a shame that so many of us think that slavery is a thing of the past when its going on right now. What about the rights of these workers? Any compliments about Dubai's past prosperity are entirely due to these hard working Indian and Pakistanis.
One question that I always pondered was how Dubai started? I mean we all know about the Sheikh's "visions"of madness derived by the luck of sitting on a pile of oil.. but who actually moved to Dubai to start the whole property bubble? Many may not know that it actually started by many Russians who stole their governments assets, sold them and then had to find a way to launder the funds. These buyers formed the majority of buyers within developments such as Palm Jumeirah. You could walk down an entire frond of this development only to find 5 out of 100 houses actually being lived in. The others (95% of them) were filty dust colored villas with pools that resembled swamps.
Another stumbling block in Dubai's recent history is that the majority of these buyers sold all the properties are sent the money elsewhere. No longer were the fur coat stores able to sell their $5000 coats... which is obviously halarious given how hot Dubai is.
Another of Dubai's major hickups was the fact that the Middle East had never seen a property bubble before. Not only did the vast majority of the local population not understand the warning signs but it was extremely rude to mention anything negative around anyone from a Middle Eastern background. It'd be like spitting in their face to say that Dubai is unsustainable. So you'd be at meetings where a project is being proposed that will lose the company billions of dollars and you can't say a word! Anyone that did was automatically shunned and regarded as a bad employee... this would be me! Worst of all, none of the local population had the slightest knowledge of basic economics such as demand and supply. Even though the city was being built to house 30 million people, with a current 1.5 million population, of which half can't afford to buy McDonalds, and a population growth rate of 7%, it was inevitable that Dubai's economy was hping collapse to the extent that it has.
Another large issue in Dubai related to the feasibility of all their projects. I completed a vast majority of all the mega-project feasibilty studies (as I was contracted by all the large developers) and not one of them was even close to being profitable. Typically the residual land value (the value of the land once you determine how much the completed building could be sold for less the development costs etc) was about a fifth of the price that these plots were sold for to complete sucker investors.
One example was the proposed Arabian Canal. At an insanely high selling price of all the surrounding plots, assuming 20% increases in their value until the year 2020 and extremely bullish sale rates the project would still lose billions of dollars. My team obviously thought that the project would be canceled but later that week the project was announced to be going ahead!
Other completely unfeasible projects that I worked on included the wildly stupid World Islands, Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira Islands by a large local developer. I think that many of the buyers did not realise that the majority of these plots had NO utilities. Thats right. No electricity, no sewage, no nothing... just some sand.
One of the most celebrated purchases my company undertook was the purchase of the QE2 ship. Upon the ships arrival the boat had not even been paid for. In fact the Sheikh was so desperate for attention that he didnt realise that it was cheaper to buy a better, brand new boat. Why is this? Because the entire boat is ridden with asbestos. The company did not have any money to undertake any of the upgrades to transform the floating asbestos vessel into a livable hotel. I wouldnt be surprised if they just painted it and let people live in the asbestos rooms. Either that or it will rot until it disintegrates into the sewage filled Arabian Gulf.
Another annoyance was the constant mass of false articles written by the media. The newspaper was basically a fabrication of lies/propoganda to encourage people to buy more real estate. When the economy turned the government (the Sheikh) imposed fines of something like a million dollars for mentioning anything bad about the economy. So my previous companies 2500 layoffs (of an original) 4000 were never reported.
Other insane projects included Dubailand. When I first arrived to Dubai I couldn't wait till the year 2009. This was of course the year that pretty much every theme park was supposed to be completed. This was supposed to be one of the biggest jewels in Dubai's crown. Unfortunately, riding a roller coaster in 55 degree Celsius (125 F) heat would really not be all that pleasurable. With only about 4 months of the year having comfortable weather how on earth were these theme parks ever going to operate considering that they were all outdoor! (except for the Sahara Kingdom theme park which was supposed to be indoor). Anyway, while driving down Dubai's Emirates Road (the main road that passes all of the planned theme parks which has a speed camera about every 100 meters in a desperate plea for extra cash) still shows just piles of sand... oh and a bit more sand. I guess I can't say they didn't do anything though, because they did manage to produce hundreds of absurdly large billboards. You've got to wonder though, surely the developer of Dubailand knew that all these theme park operators never intended on building these parks, or they at least canceled their deals to build the parks at some point... I'm just wondering when they were planning on telling all the investors that purchased neighbouring plots of land for hundreds of millions of dollars?
After living in Dubai for 2 years I honestly believe that developments such as Dubailand were never going to be built. It was all just one big lie in an attempt to sell worthless piles of sand for prices that would make New York look quite cheap. The current reality of Dubai property prices stumbling at least 80% in value now makes these plots of land as worthless as you'd expect a camel herding local to pay for them.
I personally was lucky enough to be able to quit my average paying consulting job and work in a high paying government position with the developer of the famous Palm and World Island developments. I was initially drawn to the position due to the job security of working for an oil-rich sheikh. It was only a matter of days before I stumbled upon unbelievable levels of fraud, corruption and embezzlement. Being a the proud ethical professional that I am I refused to be involved in anything that resembled being the slightest bit shady. It wasn't too long before I realized that the massive amount of corruption that was going on was actually waaaaaaaay bigger than I thought it was. The Director of Sales and Marketing (Manal Shaheen) was allegedly embezzling billions of dollars worth of real estate on a regular basis. I was shocked! Not only had this lady been given a 10 million dollar villa on the Palm Island but now she was stealing from the Sheikh that was kind enough to give her a pretty damn expensive villa. I later realised that a few others were taking bribes, on a far smaller scale, but now they've been in jail for about 10 months. From talking with past collegues I believe that about 15 people from this company are now in jail. Amazingly, the company has only reported that about 4 people have been put in jail. What happened to the other imprisoned employees? And why is the Director of Sales and Marketing (Manal Shaheen) not on jail considering that she "allegedly" stole billions of dollars? I guess her friendship with one of the sheikhs daughters helped her out a bit.
There's no doubting that Dubai created a huge amount of hype. From the glossy brochures to the massive billboards... to the misleading advertising. Many developers would state that their developments are close to selling out however that was rarely the truth. The most common scenario with the government developers was that the Sheikh would actually buy a huuuuuuuuge percentage of every development to create a false sense of demand for property. The government department which organised this was humerously called the "Engineers Office." I'm quite sure that this office didn't employee any engineers :-D When I worked for this government real estate company I was frequently required to select hundreds of apartments in each development which would make investors think that the development is selling out quickly... but in fact the Sheikh was just buying his own properties back off himself.
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> Everything was great in Dubai until Cityscape around September 2009. During the previous months (and previous years Cityscape) investors were literally fighting each other at to buy developments such as Badrah in the Dubai Waterfront. During Cityscape 2009 investors were sparse. I walked around asking each agent how many houses/apartments etc had sold and while they initially stated that they were selling... constant pestering revealed that virtually no property had been sold out of hundreds of thousands of properties on the market. Investors went into a spin. Investors quickly realized that if they wanted to save themselves they''d better sell fast. Within a few weeks the market was flooded with properties for sale... but no buyers! Who actually wanted to buy in Dubai? It was estimated that about 80% of all property purchases were pure speculation. An investor would pay the 5 to 10% deposit and would have to sell the property before the next payment was due. But when there were no sellers, and these investors had no buyers. With many obviously waaay over their heads in payments and with no bankruptcy laws.. and a debtors prison ready and waiting for anyone who could not make one small payment, the only option for many was taking the next flight home. Luckily the majority of those in these circumstances bailed before they were put in a nasty situation. Unfortunately, many stupidly believed that they could fix their mountain of debt before the law caught up with them. But once a bank is alerted of non-payment of debts all your accounts are frozen... plus now the airport and customs officers have been alerted and so you're not allowed to leave the country. Surely there must be a tremendous amount of people hiding somewhere in Dubai, such as in cars as indicated in the article.
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> The final moments of my time in Dubai were just insane. The government owned real estate company I was working for could not pay their creditors and the department I was working for had all the toilet paper removed as the creditor had not been paid in 6 months... so the creditor stormed into the office... took all the toilet paper including the roll holders and walked out. It was two days before this önce glam company could afford to buy toilet paper. Well I lied, they never actually bought more toilet paper just "contracted" another sucker to provide all the toilet paper until they got angry about never being paid and the process repeats itself over and over again. Its a shame that so many creditors outlaid huge amounts of capital on the basis that they would be paid. Everyone assumed that the Dubai Sheikh had more money than he could handle. But since many ""infrastructure" projects (not just real estate) projects on hold, its now evident that several companies have walked off the job.
As I draw closer an end on my Dubai spiel I must say that the biggest shock was the quantity of prostitutes all over Bur Dubai. My god! It's a real shame but after being there 2 years I realized that the vast majority of people who enjoy the Dubai lifestyle also coincidentally enjoy frequenting these fly-in-fly-out ladies of the night. Sadly I've personally seen many marriages be destroyed by Dubai, and the vast majority of them have been destroyed as a result of prostitution.
One amusing point (to me anyway) was that the local men (who were allowed 3 wives at any one time) never had sex out of marriage. This was because they'd say something (I dont have a clue what it was) then they'd be "married." Then they'd have sex. Then the local man would say something along the lines of "I divorce thee" three times and they'd be divorced. As insane as this sounds this really is no joke! So when local men say that they never have sex out of marriage you really need to ask them how many marriages they've had that lasted only a few hours. Also, the local men would get insanely drunk at house parties with prostitutes and strippers (who are usually very very young girls). Trust me, I know. I was invited to one of these shindigs but never went. Speaking of young girls, while I was there an old man raped a young girl (I think that she was like 9), but when he went to court he old man said he'd marry the girl, so he was let off with no charges....hmmm... Another time an old man raped a young boy and when it went to court the old man didnt get charged because his defence claimed that the young boy was gay. This case ended up on CNN and doesn't say much for the reputation of the local people.
Its hard to believe that this time last year virtually everyone in Dubai was blissfully unaware of the impending doom. But with the supply of real estate faaaar outweighing demand, the Sheikh carelessly spending billions of dollars on Australian stables rather than on the future of the local population, high levels of corruption, disgraceful racism, unenforceable contracts and government companies refusing to provide contracted compensation to their employees and/or not paying their creditors it's no surprise at all that Dubai is now one of the biggest jokes of all time. It's now hard to believe that the city was once compared to the worlds greatest cities such as New York and Singapore. Anyone who actually believed this failed to realise that these cities are what they are today because of their history, the liveable weather (although debateable during the colder months in New York) and basically because they are sustainable.
> Anyway, I'm more glad than ever to be back in a western country with clean running water, clean beaches (unlike Dubai's sewage filled Arabian Gulf.. wow what a treat to tourists and those that live there), consumer recourse, honest police and good people that can be trusted. I hope that anyone that reads this can acknowledge that no amount of money is worth supporting the disgusting behavior displayed by the local people. Everyone, no matter what their origin, should be treated with respect and it's a real shame that people still aren't acknowledging the slave workers and high levels of racism in a country that pretends to be so accepting of people from all over the world.
The arabs in the GCC specially in the UAE are ignorant on the large scale and will always be.They are bedouins who dont know left from right and assume they have the right to abuse anyone who doesnt comply with their retarded ways.Sheikh mohamad and all the other idiotic leaders are nothing but sadistic,ignorant,backward people who used to be pirates and cleaned up their act to get white blond people living in their country.I hope this place burns to the ground.ARAB PIGS
I Do not think Sheikh Mohammad gives a damn about forign investors at all.
A friend of mine invested a veryu large amount with Highrise Properties in Dubai.
He appealed to Sheikh Mohammad a few times, and totaly ignored so far.
There are no laws in Dubai to help abuses against foriegn investors.
Highrise property took the fund , refuse to refund or issue a booking agreement. They simply spent investors money.
The guy owning Highrise, Abdoulhakim Al Tayer is one of big Sheik's sone in Dubai and do not care about laws. He feels he is part of the family of Sheikh Mohammad and is immune from law.
Scary place to invest.
My comments re Damac and Emaar were made following Kamal's explanation of the legal status and transparency applicable to real estate. I had added that even more important than the courts, was the action of the press which for example reported Damac's problem to deliver some properties on time, and that after a major rain storm, papers reported the onslaught of complaints Emaar and others received about construction defects. That in my opinion is the best protection for owners. R2E
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