A former Deyaar Development board member, charged with accepting a dhs11.75 million bribe, was sentenced to three years in jail and fined dhs115 million yesterday in the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Dubai Public Prosecution had charged the 40-year-old Emirati, SA, with requesting and accepting the dhs11.75 million bribe to facilitate the sale of a property in Dubai.
According to Public Prosecution records, SA took the bribe when he was a Deyaar board member in return for easing the process of the sale of a property to Deyaar by two businessmen EA and AZ.
EA and SA were also charged with dealing with illegal interest payments worth dhs16 million, but EA was found innocent by the court.
The court ordered SA to pay dhs100,001 as temporary compensation and ordered the case to be referred to the Civil Court, where Deyaar has the right to pursue further compensation.
In 2007, Deyaar discovered that SA had facilitated the resale of land in Dubai Marina worth dhs300 million to Deyaar for dhs415.8 million, and pocketed dhs11.75 million as a commission for the deal.
Prosecutors claimed SA's commission constituted an illegal bribe, because SA is a public sector employee and therefore may not accept commissions.
"Officials in Deyaar claimed that SA told them about the Marina land, claiming that it belonged to the ruler of Dubai and they bought it," an Emirati captain in Dubai Police said in the official records.
"Deyaar noticed that the name on the buying check wasn't the governor's but another businessman's name. They then discovered that the businessman had bought the land for dhs300 million and SA offered it to Deyaar for dhs415.8 million."
Yesterday's court case is part of the wider investigation into "financial mishandling" at Deyaar, which has also involved ongoing investigations into Deyaar's former CEO Zack Shahin and a former UAE minister.
The arrest of Shahin in April 2008 kicked off a string of high profile revelations of alleged wrongdoing at banks and major developers, as the Government of Dubai promised to crack down on corruption.
Shahin is also accused of accepting bribes along with Argentinean KM and Canadian FL, who is at large and is being tried in absentia.
Dubai Public Prosecution has charged them with demanding dhs30.51 million from engineering and contracting firm Thermo for awarding it some Deyaar contracts.
© 7Days 2010
