Courts clear five of fraud

10-year prison term quashed

dubai — Two long-standing, high profile financial wrong-doing court cases have ended with the Court of Appeal overturning convictions, alleviating the accused of decades in jail and millions of dirhams in fines.

In separate decisions handed down by the court on Sunday, the American former CEO of property developer Deyaar had a 15-year jail sentence quashed, while three other British, Canadian and Argentinean co-accused had their 10-year terms quashed, as well as the order to pay jointly more than Dh28 million in fines and to return the same sum to Deyaar. The arrests took place in 2008.

In the second case, an Australian former executive manager of the Nakheel Waterfront project had a 10-year jail term quashed. The man had also been ordered to jointly pay a fine of Dh44m — and return the same amount to Nakheel — with the manager of a private investment fund, with whom he was accused of striking an under-the-table deal in 2007 which allegedly caused a Dh142,153 loss to the company due to price discrepancy.

Earlier, two other co-accused — the former commercial operation manager and legal manager of Nakheel Waterfront, both Australian — were aquitted of fraud, divulging confidential information and damage of public funds through illegal profiteering. The arrests took place in 2009.

dubai — The Court of Appeal has cleared a former executive manager of the Nakheel Waterfront project of a fraud charge, quashing a lower court’s verdict that had earlier sentenced him to 10 years in prison, deportation and a hefty fine of Dh44 million.

The 44-year-old Australian former executive, identified as M.J., was the only one to appeal the initial verdict through Salem Al Shaaly’s office for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy. Another defendant, identified as A.R., manager of a private investment firm, who had also been sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay jointly with M.J., a fine of Dh44m — and return the same amount to Nakheel — is out of the UAE and no appeal has been filed by him as yet.

The verdict was delivered by the court on Sunday.

Apart from M.J., the case also involves the ex-commercial operation manager, M.R., 41, and the former legal manager, A.J., 45, of the Nakheel Waterfront, both Australians. Both had earlier been acquitted of fraud, divulging confidential information and damage of public funds through illegal profiteering.

M.J. had been convicted in May by the Court of First Instance of striking an underthe-table deal with A.R. in 2007, which allegedly resulted in a loss of Dh142,153 million to Nakheel due to the difference in prices.

Only M.R. and M.J. attended the hearings following their arrest in January 2009.

A.R. is believed to have posed as a mediator between Nakheel’s accused and a buyer, the complainant. A.R. allegedly fooled the complainant by saying a plot was unavailable for sale directly from Nakheel and that he had to purchase it from him (A.R.) claiming he had booked it and had rights over it, which was untrue.

A.R. allegedly swindled the complainant of Dh 44.1 million, which he claimed were for ‘cession rights’.