A former DP World manager who sought bribes from two companies in exchange for helping them win lucrative construction projects has had her 18-month jail term upheld – and been told she must still pay a fine of nearly Dh5 million.
The 29-year-old Emirati, who was a senior manager at the port operator at the time of her crime, was convicted of seeking bribes last November and has now been ordered to see out her sentence by Dubai Court of Appeal.
The defendant, who no longer works for DP World, demanded a Dh4,350,000 payment from the 49-year-old Jordanian manager of one company to help him win a bid at Jebel Ali Court.
She also asked for a Dh500,00 bribe from a 59-year-old Egyptian man to help his construction company secure a villa building project in Jumeirah Heights.
Both construction company managers were also jailed for a year, with each fined the respective sums they were offering as a pay-off.
A Lebanese man was also sentenced to three months in jail at the time for aiding and abetting the Emirati manager.
A Syrian woman, aged 54, who was jailed for a year for money laundering, was granted a pardon by the appeal court after turning whistleblower.
Her lawyer, Faisal Al Zarooni, said that the appeals court pardoned his client from the penalty because her testimony was taken twice by prosecutors, once as a witness – when the incident was reported to authorities – and another time as a defendant.
"The appeals court pardoned her in order to be able to use her testimony as a witness to convict the other defendants in this case. They can't use her own testimony as a witness to convict her, but they can use it to convict the others," said Mr Al Zarooni.
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British man John Murphy fined Dh20,000 for Abu Dhabi hotel assault
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The crimes occurred between 2012 and 2014 and were reported to authorities by the Syrian DP World employee, after she was not paid her full share of the cash.
“After she helped the two companies enter the bids with DP World, she asked me to contact the managers of the companies and ask each to wire her Dh500,000,” said the Syrian in her testimony.
She went to the authorities about the plot and later wore a wire to gather evidence against them.
She said she did not know how the DP World director managed to help the companies enter the bids, since they were not registered contractors with DP World. She said she saw the Emirati defendant tell each company what prices they should list in their tender bids.
“In order to make sure that she gets her share, she had an engineering consultations company owned by her friend, the Lebanese defendant, sign separate contracts with both companies stating that if they won the bids, they are to pay the consultations company a percentage of the total amount of the project they won,” said the Syrian woman.
The consulting company received more than Dh2m after the two bidders won.
“Then the Emirati received her share of the instalments from the consultations company, sometimes in cash at her sister’s home or in a cafe on Sheikh Zayed Road.
“I received Dh175,000 and was never paid the Dh550,000 remaining from my share,” said the Syrian.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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