Dubai: Investors are looking to reclaim 1.1 million euros (Dh5.49 million) from a German hotel fund in an alleged fraud case involving a hotel project in Dubailand.
The German fund firm called Dubai 1000 Hotelfonds originally planned to build a 1,000-room hotel in Dubailand and promised to finish the project in 2007.
However, the hotel never materialised and the fund manager, German national Georg Recker, is now wanted following an arrest warrant issued in November last year by the public prosecutor in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Gulf News reported the case in summer 2008, although no legal action has been taken. In the meantime, not only has an arrest warrant been issued against Recker, but the remaining accounts of the funds company and related firms in Germany have also been seized by authorities.
According to documents obtained by Gulf News, only 1.1 million euros remain from a paid-up capital of 24.8 million euros.
"Unfortunately not all investors will get a repayment," Jens-Peter Gieschen, lawyer at German law firm KWAG, which represents the claimants, said in a statement.
"We are awaiting first result in the main trial later in 2010."
Former colleagues of Recker interrogated by German prosecutors said the hotel never received a building permit from the concerned authorities in Dubai, but some construction was started nonetheless.
However, the deserted construction site at a plot near Emirates Road shows only a sandy hole and rusty cranes, a recent on-site visit by Gulf News revealed.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Recker was inviting German medics to Dubai and asking them to invest in a health care project, a German lawyer involved in the case told Gulf News on condition of anonymity.
He said Recker suggested an investment of 50,000 euros per person to establish a health care centre.
"Investment seminars" were held at plush locations in Dubai, the lawyer said. He warned any participant interested in starting a medical business in Dubai against investing money in such a way.
