Dubai: In an unexpected twist to proceedings, real estate group Mizin's sales manager testified in court on Tuesday that the company's former executive manager and an engineer acted as per the company's sales policy and did not commit financial irregularities to the tune of Dh49 million.
"At the time of the incident, Mizin was still new in the market and wasn't very well known to clients. The sales policy then entitled the sale of a tower against three per cent commission. The Lebanese engineer, J.H., phoned me from Beirut and asked to buy two towers. I informed him that he had to be there in person. Later, he struck the deal with Mizin's executive manager then, Emirati S.A., who sold him as per the policy [3 per cent commission]," the 50-year-old Emirati sales manager testified before Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout on Tuesday.
The defence witness further testified that when the number of clients increased, Mizin altered its sales policy. "The new policy allowed the sale of a tower against two per cent commission. The policy was altered for the benefit of Mizin& S.A. never intervened in any of J.H.'s deals. There were other clients who obtained the same facilities like J.H.," testified the witness, S.O.
Mizin's former executive manager and the engineer have earlier pleaded innocent to charges of bribery and financial irregularities, amounting to nearly Dh49 million.
Lawyers Samir Jaafar and Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi, who represent S.A. and J.H., respectively, questioned the sales manager and two other witnesses.
When asked by the lawyers, the witness replied: "Mizin's sales policy constantly changed as per and to meet up with the market's circumstances."
Prosecutors charged S.A. with selling lands to J.H. when Mizin had halted the process of selling properties and argued that he granted the latter discounts and allowed him to miss the payment deadlines.
A Syrian witness, who is the general manager of a company owned by J.H., testified: "The company didn't perform any maintenance at the house of S.A.'s father. J.H. never intervened in any deal which our company struck with S.A.'s company [which fixes and sells prefabricated housing units]."
Jaafar and Al Shamsi handed Presiding Judge Barghout a copy of a financial report which was prepared by a Jordanian legal financial expert. "Your honour, I looked into the whole case and prepared this financial report. According to my findings, the defendants did not commit any financial irregularity and their deals are clean."
"God forbids! God forbids! That's prohibited by God& nothing of that sort happened," S.A. said when he defended himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
J.H., too, denied the charges of bribery and financial irregularities, repeatedly saying: "Untrue! Untrue!"
According to the arraignment sheet, prosecutors charged S.A. with abusing his duty and accepting Dh1.9 million in bribes (from J.H.) to grant him favours in booking and buying lands and special units, which belonged to Mizin's projects. He was also charged with unlawfully giving the Lebanese a Dh49 million discount on purchases.
S.A. was additionally charged with showing intent to work against the interests of Mizin by accepting the bribe and allowing J.H. to earn an illegitimate profit on the deals.
J.H. was charged with bribing S.A. to win discounts and favours for the deals, which were registered in his and someone else's name.
By Bassam Za'za
© Gulf News 2009
