1,000-room Dubailand hotel not likely to be constructed

Dubai: A 1,000-room hotel, Maritim Dubailand, which was scheduled by the German real estate fund "Dubai-1000-Hotel-Fonds", belonging to investment broker Georg Recker, will most likely never be built.

Investors received a letter from Recker's fund company, a German investor told Gulf News. The letter contained a resolution form that, if signed, would be nothing but a waiver of all claims and entitlements that derive from the fund engagement, according to the Deutsche Verbraucherschutzring (DVS), an investor and consumer watchdog in Erfurt, Germany.

Investors should refrain from signing any such documents sent to them by the "Dubai-1000-Hotel-Fonds", Claudia Lunderstedt-Georgi, managing director of DVS, said in a statement.

A criminal investigation has been started against Recker, according to public prosecutor Ina Holznagel in Dortmund, Germany. Recker is suspected of fraud and money laundering, Holznagel says.

Recker introduced the fund in 2005 on the German grey capital market to undertake a 1,000-room luxury hotel project in Dubai, promising a handover in July 2007.

Management

The project in Dubailand was planned to be managed by German hotel group Maritim Hotels, with whom Recker had signed a management contract.

Maritim spokeswoman Britt Winter told Gulf News in an email that her company has been informed by authorities about the public prosecution against Recker.

"They contacted us because we are a potentially aggrieved party," she said.

Maritim has applied for access to records and will then decide further proceedings against Recker, Winter said.

Gulf News has repeatedly tried to contact Recker to give him the opportunity to comment on the allegations. But phone calls to his office in Dubai Media City and several emails remained unanswered. A secretary of Recker's German office in Stuttgart said that "he is not present" and she is "not allowed" to say anything about his whereabouts.

Recker is a former accountant who engaged himself as a finance and investment advisor for wealthy private investors.

Travel agency

He is running a travel agency in Stuttgart, which organises tours to Dubai that sometimes include "investment seminars" at fancy places like the Burj Al Arab hotel.

He also publishes the German language Dubai Magazine, an upmarket lifestyle magazine designed to promote the booming city for investors and wealthy travellers.

Recker still advertises the phantom hotel on his homepage www.steuerlehrgang.de, but the information seems to be vague and outdated.