300M dirhams worth of fraud cases, misuse of powers charges on Z.S.

Court quashes 15-year sentence for former Deyaar CEO

dubai — The former CEO of Deyaar, has had his 15-year prison term overturned by the Court of Appeal after being cleared of the charge of collecting Dh20 million worth of bribes while in his post.

The 48-year-old American citizen Z.S., who was cleared on Sunday, was formerly convicted of taking bribes from two private firms in return for letting them win contracting bids with the property developer.

The Court of Appeal also quashed a 10-year prison term given, in absentia, to three other defendants, including a manager of a private technology firm (Argentinean citizen J.M), two managers in another private multiservice firm (Canadian F.L. and British A.S. both at large), and cleared all of them of collecting Dh10 million in bribes.

The Court of First Instance had convicted the defendants and ordered them to pay jointly more than Dh28 million in fines and to return the same sum to Deyaar.

It had also fined F.L. and A.S. jointly Dh500,000, and ordered them to return the same to their firm, worth of what they were accused of having embezzled.

Z.S. had all along pleaded not guilty to the charges of damaging Deyaar’s interests and arranging for the private firms to win contracting bids.

The director of the Financial Control Department said that during the investigation many cheques were found issued to Z.S. in addition to other money wiring.

Z.S. had been detained for more than four years and has been embroiled in trials in connection with fraud cases involving Dh300 million and misuse of powers.