Dubai princess claims she is a ‘hostage’
Parents can talk markets, investing with their kids
The daughter of Dubai’s ruler said she is being held captive by her family and fears for her life after a foiled attempt to flee the wealthy emirate in 2018, according to new video evidence in a case that has been highlighted by USA TODAY.
“Every day, I’m worried about my safety and my life. I don’t really know if I’m going to survive this situation,” Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed alMaktoum, 35, said in a self-recorded phone video.
A transcript was provided by David Haigh and Tiina Jauhiainen, Britainbased advocates working on her behalf who hope the Biden administration’s focus on human rights will pressure
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum — who is also the United Arab Emirates’ prime minister — to release his daughter.
“The police threaten me that they would take me outside and shoot me if I didn’t cooperate with them,” Latifa said in the video. “They also threatened me that I would be in prison my whole life and I’ll never see the sun again.”
Latifa’s family claimed she is fine and recuperating safely at home after an ordeal that they insisted was a failed abduction of the then-33-year-old royal.
The video clips were filmed in the bathroom of a barricaded villa in Dubai, where Latifa said she is being held against her will and without access to the outside world. The footage was aired separately as part of a BBC investigation on Tuesday night.
“I am a hostage and this villa has been converted into a jail,” she said in the video.
Haigh said the clips were filmed between late 2019 and early 2020 — more than a year after Latifa was captured and returned to Dubai. He said they were being released now because his team’s secret communications with Latifa had dried up and there had been no recent confirmation that she was still alive. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is preparing to question the UAE about her.
Haigh would not reveal how a phone was smuggled to Latifa.
The new footage of Latifa confirmed previously reported details of her daring escape from Dubai and how she was forcibly returned to the UAE nine days after fleeing the area on a U.S.-registered boat. She was apprehended off the coast of India, in international waters, along with Jauhiainen, a Finnish-born capoeira instructor who gave Latifa lessons in the Afro-Brazilian martial art before becoming her confidante.
Jauhiainen helped Latifa plot the escape, which involved riding a small inflatable dinghy for 15 miles to join a sailing vessel waiting for them off the coast of nearby Oman. When the boat was stormed by Indian commandoes, Jauhiainen and the boat’s French-born, American captain were beaten and threatened with execution before being released. Latifa was forcibly returned to Dubai.
Latifa had planned her escape from Dubai’s ruling family for seven years, running away from what she said was her father’s oppressive and cruel treatment.
USA TODAY reviewed emails, images, encrypted social media messages, ID certificates, satellite data and audio and video that substantiate what happened to her.
Her case originally came to the attention of human rights activists and international lawyers because she left behind a YouTube video with instructions for it to be released only in the event her plot to escape from Dubai failed. It was published in March 2018.
“I’m not allowed to drive. I’m not allowed to travel or leave Dubai at all,” Latifa said in the YouTube video recorded before her escape.
Before the release of the new video footage, Latifa had not been heard from since December 2018, after she was brought back to Dubai, when her family released photos of her sitting next to Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In the photos, Latifa appeared dazed and confused. Robinson admitted that she was duped into believing that Latifa was depressed and did not know she was being held captive in isolation.
Robinson said she was “horribly tricked” by Latifa’s family.
Latifa’s father, Mohammed, is one of the wealthiest heads of state in the world. Among his interests are a vast horse racing empire that includes horse farms in Lexington, Kentucky. He often attends major horse racing events in the U.K. such as Royal Ascot, where he has been pictured alongside Queen Elizabeth II.
The recent stock market mania over the video game company GameStop, which this past week was scrutinized by Congress, has provided a teachable moment for children.
The Associated Press talked to a few parents and financial experts for their tips on talking with children about investing and the often confusing behavior of financial markets. Here’s a summary of what they had to say.
Keep it simple
Parents should make sure children understand money basics before they try to conquer investing. Once they’re ready, don’t overwhelm them with too much information at once — you risk them missing the lesson and losing interest.
Children need to understand what stocks are, why people invest and how the markets work before they can understand investing.
“The best way to get kids interested in investing is to speak their language,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, financial literacy expert and senior vice president at Charles Schwab & Co. “Start by explaining that investing is a means of using your money to try to create more money.”
There are plenty of good resources available to help guide the way in talking with children about money and investing (or to help bolster parents’ own knowledge). Among them: “A Kids Book About Money” by Adam Stramwasser and Schwab MoneyWise.
Practice time
If they seem ready, let children give investing a try.
Consider one of the many apps and games out there that allow people to simulate investing experiences. Those provide a good first step in a safe environment, said Paul Golden, spokesman for the National Endowment for Financial Education.
Try one that shows gains over a long period of time, 10 or 20 years, as that better illustrates the benefits of longterm investing.
Parents can also help children identify companies they are interested in and track them using fictitious money just for fun. That presents an opportunity to explain why a stock might rise and fall in value at different points.
“If you are going to encourage your kid to buy stock, help them to understand and have a point of view on why they should buy a stock,” said Louis Taylor, president of Taylor Wealth Management in Oregon and a father of two.
You don’t need to explain balance sheets, price-to-earnings ratios or anything technical just yet. Just help them establish clearer thinking about their decision-making process.
Taylor took this approach when several college students approached him during the GameStop run-up, asking if they should invest. Instead, he asked them why they would invest in GameStop if they don’t even shop there. He was able to help them conclude that maybe there was little underlying value in the company.
“I think you should buy stock, but know why you are buying it,” he said. “If you are passionate about (a stock) because you have a belief in a brand, that’s one thing. Don’t do it because you saw it on a message board.”
Some parents open custodial brokerage accounts, which can be used to invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and
more. The assets belong to the child but the adult holds control until they reach adulthood. Some parents allow the children to have some say in how these are invested as a learning opportunity.
Jordan Wexler, CEO of EarlyBird, an app that specializes in custodial funds, said tying the concept of investing to something in their real life helps it come to life.
“Talking with them about their favorite interests and activities can lead to a much larger conversation about investing in valuable companies in a way that makes sense for them,” he said.
Talk risk
If the children were intrigued by GameStop, talk about it.
Don’t understand it? Here’s a quick recap: GameStop is a struggling brickand-mortar video game retailer. Some hedge funds and other big investors had little faith in it and “shorted” the stock, essentially betting its share price would fall. But some smaller investors decided to drive up the price by buying in.
When a stock is very heavily shorted, a rise in its price can force short sellers to get out of their bets. To do that, they have to buy the stock, which pushes the price even higher and can create a feedback loop. As GameStop’s short sellers got squeezed last month, smaller and first-time investors used online forums to encourage each other to keep the momentum going.
The stock traded below $10 for most of 2019 and 2020. This “short squeeze” sent it above $480 last month before it dropped back to around $40 as of Thursday.
Yes, some people made money. But some people lost big, too.
Seize the opportunity to talk about how different investments involve different levels of risk. Higher risk investments can result in big gains, but big losses as well.
The long game
Ray Medeiros said he has long talked to his boys — aged 16 and 18 — about the importance of investing to build wealth. He worried they might be sucked in by the allure of a quick buck by GameStop. But he talked with them about how investing is a long-term endeavor. He also urged them to always think less like a day trader, who often lose, and more like Warren Buffett.
“I told them if they wanted to invest in high risk, do it with money that you wouldn’t miss if you lost it all, kind of like the scratch tickets,” Mederios said.
Jacklynn Manning kept it simple for her boys, aged 9 and 10. She explained some stock market basics, including how nonprofessional investors can “make a good profit if you play smart and conservatively, or maybe a great loss, if they get too greedy.”
Children, especially teens who are on social media, paid attention to GameStop primarily because people are talking about it on social media platforms that they engage with. Teach them how to discern between good advice and bad.
Parents should also recognize that investing looks different these days. Robinhood, for example, has been accused of trying to lure young people with little or no experience trading stocks by including features on its trading platform that resemble gaming apps, such as showering a user’s screen with virtual confetti every time they make a trade.
The company has defended its practices and notes that it provides educational tools to its customers.
“While it’s a teachable moment, parents should reinforce that investing is not a game,” Golden said. “Investing helps achieve long-term goals.”