Fraud suspects get bail on Dh1m bond

Dubai: Lawyers defending two former Australian executives charged with misappropriating Dh44.1 million from Nakheel's Waterfront project convinced a court on Tuesday to bail their clients against a Dh1-million financial bond.

Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout said that for the Australian suspects — 43-year-old former executive director, M.J., and 40-year-old ex-operations manager, M.R. — to be released, they would have to arrange for Dh1 million to be deposited with the treasury of the Dubai Court of First Instance.

According to Presiding Judge Barghout's decision, M.J. and M.R., who earlier pleaded not guilty, will have to hand over theirs and their wives' passports besides the passports of two Emirati sponsors to be released.

"M.J. has been in provisional detention for nearly nine months… the fact that my client is behind bars is making it difficult for me to communicate with him because there are too many confidential documents, e-mail and private papers that I need to discuss with him. There are too many prosecution witnesses whose statements I have to argue with M.J.," his lawyer Salem Al Sha'ali told the court yesterday.

Meanwhile, Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi, defending M.R., told the court: "The claimants lodged a similar lawsuit concerning the same case in Australia… and my client wasn't amongst the defendants who were prosecuted before the Australian courts. He didn't play any role or have any involvement in this case. Moreover, he has been in detention for nine months and we ask the court to bail."

Abuse of position

Al Sha'ali and Al Shamsi argued that there were no plausible reasons to justify their clients' provisional detention, before the judge approved their bail requests.

Prosecutors charged M.J., M.R. and Waterfront's former legal adviser, 44-year-old Australian A.J. (who is at large), with abusing their positions as public servants and intentionally damaging Nakheel's interests by siphoning off Dh44.1 million, out of which Dh22.1 million went to M.J.

Public Prosecution records said the suspects defrauded a Dubai-based property developer and its Australian manager D.B of Dh44.1 million.

The court ordered the claimant in civil rights, lawyer Eisa Bin Haidar, who is representing the property developer and D.B., to present his temporary compensation claim of Dh20,000 when the court adjourns next month.

"Since the case started, the police detained D.B. and confiscated his passport because he was a suspect in the case… later the authorities allegedly turned D.B. to a victim and convinced him to allegedly fabricate this incident against the defendants. The internal auditor submitted a biased financial report because he was asked to do it upon the law enforcement officers' directives. The court proceedings could last more than a year and we might ask for an independent auditor to prepare an unbiased financial report… and that's why we are requesting bail for our client," Al Sha'ali argued in courtroom nine.

The Public Prosecution charged M.J., M.R. and A.J. with abusing their jobs as public servants and intentionally damaging the interest of Nakheel's Waterfront project. The bill of charges said a fourth Australian escapee, A.R., collaborated with the former Waterfront executives.