ONGOING CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN IN DUBAI FINANCIAL AND REAL

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBAI 000358 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/8/2018 TAGS: PGOV ECON EFIN ETRD KCRM AE SUBJECT: ONGOING CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN IN DUBAI FINANCIAL AND REAL ESTATE SECTORS REF: DUBAI 296 DUBAI 00000358 001.4 OF 003 CLASSIFIED BY: Paul Sutphin, Consul General, Consulate Dubai, UAE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (S) Summary and Comment. Following the public disclosure of a large real estate/financial scandal involving Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB, in which the Dubai Government maintains a 35% stake) and private property developer Deyaar in April, Minister of State for Finance Dr. Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, also Chairman of DIB, hastily resigned from both positions. Several senior sources told us that the resignations were directly linked to the scandal. A subsequent series of reports of scandals and investigations regarding graft in Dubai's booming real estate and financial industries have appeared in the local press (unusual in itself). The Dubai Police and Public Prosecution investigations are being spun as a self-initiated, focused, and transparent public attempt to reduce corruption - putting the best face on what seems to us more likely the ongoing disclosure of a large and complex web of dirty deals. The office of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum (MbR, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, Ruler of Dubai) issued a public statement proclaiming there will be "zero tolerance" for corruption in the UAE - but only after the initial round of disclosures. Local legend holds that senior UAEG officials and businessmen involved in inequities in the past have often avoided the public humiliation of trial by paying hefty fines and withdrawing from public life. Whether the rhetoric matches the reality will be an interesting test of Dubai's developing culture of corporate governance. But the fact these investigations are taking place and being discussed publicly is bound to have some salutary effect on the excesses of the wild and woolly local real estate market, a good thing. End Summary. Arresting Real Estate Moguls and Banking Chiefs -------------- -- ¶2. (U) Starting with the April l7th public disclosure that Zack Shahin, former CEO of Deyaar (a large private real estate developer),had been arrested under allegations of embezzlement, there has been a widening investigation encompassing executives from number of private, public, and parastatal Dubai companies. (Note: Shahin, an AmCit, was actually arrested March 23 and is still under arrest pending charges. ACS Dubai is actively following his case and details are reported ref A. End note.) Press reports have named executives currently or formerly employed at Dubai Islamic Bank (as part of the Deyaar scandal), mortgage finance company Tamweel, Dubai parastatals Istithmar (investment),Nakheel (property development),Sama Dubai (property development),as well as US investment bank JP Morgan. Press reports indicate between 15 to 20 individuals have been detained and/or questioned. Among those publicly named are a mix of UAE nationals and expatriates, including several locally prominent figures: -- Adel Shirawi, currently Vice Chairman of Istithmar World (a Dubai government investment fund and subsidiary of Dubai World) and formerly CEO of Tamweel (one of the two largest mortgage lenders in Dubai); -- Feras Kalthoum, Istithmar's CFO and a former Tamweel executive; -- and Waleed Al-Jazirir, Nakheel's General Manager for Sales. Others named in various investigations include: -- Rafatul Islam Usmani, a "former senior executive" at DIB; -- Karim Zawya, International Sales Manager at Nakheel (the Dubai World development subsidiary famous for building the Palm Islands),and former assistant director of sales at Damac Properties (a large real estate developer); -- and Omair Mooraj, J.P. Morgan's senior country officer in the UAE. The latest name to surface in ongoing investigations is Abdul Salam al Merri, CEO of the Lagoons (a Sama Dubai/ Dubai Holding real estate development subsidiary); three other Sama staff members have reportedly been detained for questioning. Don't mess with the government's money DUBAI 00000358 002.4 OF 003 -------------- ¶3. (C) ONE press report speculated that the cases are an outgrowth of the early 2007 reorganization of the emirate's financial audit department, shifting its reporting authority directly to MbR (versus a lower functionary). The department is responsible for auditing all firms in which the government of Dubai owns 25 percent or more. Given the financial/ownership ties ultimately roll up in most of the reported cases to the Dubai government, the speculation may be justified. ¶4. (U) Dubai Government ownership predominates among the many of the firms with individuals reportedly under investigation: -- Sama Dubai is a fully-owned Dubai Holding subsidiary; -- Istithmar and Nakheel are under the Dubai World umbrella (both Dubai Holding and Dubai World are owned, ultimately, by MbR); -- as noted the Dubai government has a large stake (35 percent) ownership in the DIB. A web of interrelationships link some of the firms, with DIB owning a 41 percent stake in Deyaar, and DIB (at 19.98 percent) and Istithmar World Capital (at 22 percent) maintaining significant stakes in Tamweel. ¶5. (U) More than a week after the initial public disclosure of the DIB/Deyaar investigation, and following the resignation of Kharbash, MbR's office issued a widely publicized statement proclaiming "fighting corruption is at the top of the [Dubai] Government's priorities." It went on to note a "zero tolerance" policy against "illegal profits" and "all aspects of corruption, bribing and taking advantage of officials' positions." It noted that "strict and prompt action" would be taken against public and private sector corruption and was clearly aimed at alleged white-collar financial improprieties. ¶6. (C) Other than releasing names and general allegations of bribery, embezzlement, breach of trust and corruption, Dubai Public Prosecution and the Police are keeping a tight hold on details about the alleged misdeeds. Senior Emirati contacts, as ever focused on maintaining Dubai's reputation, have been unable or unwilling to discuss details of any ongoing case. While details remain scarce, several very senior Dubai contacts -- including two federal ministers -- have clearly intimated to us that Kharbash's downfall flowed directly from the DIB/Deyaar mess, and that this "purging of bad elements" as ONE federal minister put it, is needed for Dubai's continuing development. Shahin: Accusations Against Emirati Former Colleagues -------------- -------------- ¶7. (S/NF) However, detained former Deyaar CEO and AmCit Zack Shahin has alleged in a document released to Post that several highly placed UAEG officials and businessmen have managed to avoid public disgrace by simply paying hefty fines. (Note: The following allegations are made in Shahin's statement and have not/not been corroborated by any other evidence. End Note.) According to Shahin, Kharbash was involved in a 10 percent kick-back scheme on a Saudi deal (totaling more than 47 million AED/ $12.8 million). Additionally, Shahin alleges prominent Dubaian Saad Abdul Razak, a Board member of Deyaar and the CEO of the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD, the stated sovereign wealth investment vehicle for Dubai) in collaboration with Abdulrahim Zarooni (a prominent businessman and real estate developer),embezzled 117 million AED/$31.88 million from Deyaar. Shahin also alleges that Nasser Al Dabal, the former Director of Investments at Deyaar and currently CEO of Diera Investments (a Dubai government-owned real estate company headed by Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, MbR's uncle, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Group/Emirates Airlines),embezzled 30 million AED/ $8.17 million. All of the noted individuals, according to Shahin, repaid the embezzled sums to the Ruler's Court, but they were never brought to trial (Comment: None of these names have surfaced in the press, and we are unaware of any court cases against them. End Comment.) Crime and Punishment -- Differing Standards for Emiratis vs. Expats? -------------- -------------- ¶8. (S/NF) Long-time Dubai resident expatriate contacts have indicated to us that they doubt whether any of the named high DUBAI 00000358 003.4 OF 003 profile Emiratis will actually be brought to trial. Local legend among many expats holds that senior UAEG officials and businessmen involved in past incidents of corruption or other misuse of official positions have often avoided the public humiliation of trial by paying hefty fines and withdrawing from public life. The bigger problem is corporate governance -------------- ¶9. (C) An underlying problem in many Dubai companies, both public and private, which has contributed to the current set of scandals is the general lack of developed corporate governance principles and practices. Inter-linked board memberships, family and tribal ties provide ripe opportunities for insider trading and market abuse. According a recently released Hawkamah (a regional institute for corporate governance) study, regional companies do not really understand the concepts of good corporate governance: while roughly 2/3rds of publicly-listed companies in the region ranked corporate governance as either "important" or "very important", 53 percent of these same companies couldn't even define corporate governance properly and few recognized why it is good for business. The statistics corroborate comments made to Pol/EconOff by David Nicholson (protect),General Counsel for Nakheel (and formerly with Damac) on "the utter lack of good corporate governance" in most Dubai business, such as a limited number of external board members, and the lack of internal audit or checks and balance procedures. Comment -------------- ¶10. (S/NF) Our sense is that there is an element of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear in how Dubai is publicly presenting the ongoing investigations, i.e. painting the uncovering of a widening scandal as a pro-active, focused effort to uproot corruption. Whether the corruption cases against both UAE nationals and non-nationals ever make it to trial will be a test of the Dubai Government's willingness to combat senior white-collar crime - it is worth noting that while Shahin remains in custody that Kharbash, while most definitely disgraced, seems to have faded from the seminal DIB/Deyaar investigation, despite his central role at DIB. Despite this, UAE Minister for Cabinet Affairs (and top aide to MbR) Mohammed Gergawi, when asked point-blank by the Consul General if senior Emirati figures who may be involved in the various scandals would be tried publicly or allowed to pay fines and step back from their positions, said that wrongdoers would be prosecuted publicly. ¶11. (S/NF) In a culture known for its abhorrence of public blame and shame, especially of its own citizens, the Dubai leadership realizes it has a lot riding on the stability of its real estate and financial services sectors (two of the six core sectors targeted in the Dubai 2015 Strategic Plan). Since the allegations about corrupt leaders and staff members went public, DIB shares fell 17 percent, Deyaar is down 18 percent and Tamweel is down 28 percent. While obviously many factors impact stock prices, the allegations of embezzlement have clearly had an impact on the companies' share prices. With so much of the Dubai economy riding on the continued HEALTH of real estate (and real estate financing) the government has to carefully weigh the benefits of protecting the reputations of wrong-doing citizens against the longer term impact to its economic goals and ambitions. Gergawi concluded that while the scandal probes might "have a short term negative impact", in the long term improved corporate oversight and the clear message corruption will not be tolerated is "essential" to the continued development and financial HEALTH of Dubai. End comment. SUTPHIN