Officials puzzle over millions of dollars leaving Afghanistan by plane for Dubai

Source: Washington Post, 25th February 2010
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A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan -- often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport -- as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.
The cash, estimated to total well over $1 billion a year, flows mostly to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, where many wealthy Afghans now park their families and funds, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. So long as departing cash is declared at the airport here, its transfer is legal.
But at a time when the United States and its allies are spending billions of dollars to prop up the fragile government of President Hamid Karzai, the volume of the outflow has stirred concerns that funds have been diverted from aid. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for its part, is trying to figure out whether some of the money comes from Afghanistan's thriving opium trade. And officials in neighboring Pakistan think that at least some of the cash leaving Kabul has been smuggled overland from Pakistan.
"All this money magically appears from nowhere," said a U.S. official who monitors Afghanistan's growing role as a hub for cash transfers to Dubai, which has six flights a day to and from Kabul.
Meanwhile, the United States is stepping up efforts to stop money flow in the other direction -- into Afghanistan and Pakistan in support of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Senior Treasury Department officials visited Kabul this month to discuss the cash flows and other issues relating to this country's infant, often chaotic financial sector.
Tracking Afghan exchanges has long been made difficult by the widespread use of traditional money-moving outfits, known as "hawalas," which keep few records. The Afghan central bank, supported by U.S. Treasury advisers, is trying to get a grip on them by licensing their operations.
In the meantime, the money continues to flow. Cash declaration forms filed at Kabul International Airport and reviewed by The Washington Post show that Afghan passengers took more than $180 million to Dubai during a two-month period starting in July. If that rate held for the entire year, the amount of cash that left Afghanistan in 2009 would have far exceeded the country's annual tax and other domestic revenue of about $875 million.
The declaration forms highlight the prominent and often opaque role played by hawalas. Asked to identify the "source of funds" in forms issued by the Afghan central bank, cash couriers frequently put down the name of the same Kabul hawala, an outfit called New Ansari Exchange.
Early last month, Afghan police and intelligence officers raided New Ansari's office in Kabul's bazaar district, carting away documents and computers, said Afghan bankers familiar with the operation. U.S. officials declined to comment on what prompted the raid. New Ansari Exchange, which is affiliated with a licensed Afghan bank, closed for a day or so but was soon up and running again.
The total volume of departing cash is almost certainly much higher than the declared amount. A Chinese man, for instance, was arrested recently at the Kabul airport carrying 800,000 undeclared euros (about $1.1 million).
Cash also can be moved easily through a VIP section at the airport, from which Afghan officials generally leave without being searched. American officials said that they have repeatedly raised the issue of special treatment for VIPs at the Kabul airport with the Afghan government but that they have made no headway.
One U.S. official said he had been told by a senior Dubai police officer that an Afghan diplomat flew into the emirate's airport last year with more than $2 million worth of euros in undeclared cash. The Afghan consul general in Dubai, Haji Rashoudin Mohammadi, said in a telephone interview that he was not aware of any such incident.
The high volume of cash passing through Kabul's airport first came to light last summer when British company Global Strategies Group, which has an airport security contract, started filing reports on the money transfers at the request of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, the domestic intelligence agency. The country's notoriously corrupt police force, however, complained about this arrangement, and Global stopped its reporting in September, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Afghan bankers interviewed in Kabul said that much of the money that does get declared belongs to traders who want to buy goods in Dubai but want to avoid the fees, delays and paperwork that result from conventional wire transfers.
The cash flown out of Kabul includes a wide range of foreign currencies. Most is in U.S. dollars, euros and -- to the bafflement of officials -- Saudi Arabian riyals, a currency not widely used in Afghanistan.
Last month, a well-dressed Afghan man en route to Dubai was found carrying three briefcases stuffed with $3 million in U.S. currency and $2 million in Saudi currency, according to an American official who was present when the notes were counted. A few days later, the same man was back at the Kabul airport, en route to Dubai again, with about $5 million in U.S. and Saudi bank notes.
One theory is that some of the Arab nation's cash might come from Saudi donations that were supposed to go to mosques and other projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, the American official said, "we don't really know what is going on."
Efforts to figure out just how much money is leaving Afghanistan and why have been hampered by a lack of cooperation from Dubai, complained Afghan and U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Dubai's financial problems, said a U.S. official, had left the emirate eager for foreign cash, and "they don't seem to care where it comes from." Dubai authorities declined to comment.
The declaration forms highlight the prominent and often opaque role played by hawalas. Asked to identify the "source of funds" in forms issued by the Afghan central bank, cash couriers frequently put down the name of the same Kabul hawala, an outfit called New Ansari Exchange.
Early last month, Afghan police and intelligence officers raided New Ansari's office in Kabul's bazaar district, carting away documents and computers, said Afghan bankers familiar with the operation. U.S. officials declined to comment on what prompted the raid. New Ansari Exchange, which is affiliated with a licensed Afghan bank, closed for a day or so but was soon up and running again.
The total volume of departing cash is almost certainly much higher than the declared amount. A Chinese man, for instance, was arrested recently at the Kabul airport carrying 800,000 undeclared euros (about $1.1 million).
Cash also can be moved easily through a VIP section at the airport, from which Afghan officials generally leave without being searched. American officials said that they have repeatedly raised the issue of special treatment for VIPs at the Kabul airport with the Afghan government but that they have made no headway.
One U.S. official said he had been told by a senior Dubai police officer that an Afghan diplomat flew into the emirate's airport last year with more than $2 million worth of euros in undeclared cash. The Afghan consul general in Dubai, Haji Rashoudin Mohammadi, said in a telephone interview that he was not aware of any such incident.
The high volume of cash passing through Kabul's airport first came to light last summer when British company Global Strategies Group, which has an airport security contract, started filing reports on the money transfers at the request of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, the domestic intelligence agency. The country's notoriously corrupt police force, however, complained about this arrangement, and Global stopped its reporting in September, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Afghan bankers interviewed in Kabul said that much of the money that does get declared belongs to traders who want to buy goods in Dubai but want to avoid the fees, delays and paperwork that result from conventional wire transfers.
The cash flown out of Kabul includes a wide range of foreign currencies. Most is in U.S. dollars, euros and -- to the bafflement of officials -- Saudi Arabian riyals, a currency not widely used in Afghanistan.
Last month, a well-dressed Afghan man en route to Dubai was found carrying three briefcases stuffed with $3 million in U.S. currency and $2 million in Saudi currency, according to an American official who was present when the notes were counted. A few days later, the same man was back at the Kabul airport, en route to Dubai again, with about $5 million in U.S. and Saudi bank notes.
One theory is that some of the Arab nation's cash might come from Saudi donations that were supposed to go to mosques and other projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, the American official said, "we don't really know what is going on."
Efforts to figure out just how much money is leaving Afghanistan and why have been hampered by a lack of cooperation from Dubai, complained Afghan and U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Dubai's financial problems, said a U.S. official, had left the emirate eager for foreign cash, and "they don't seem to care where it comes from." Dubai authorities declined to comment.

'The World's' GB owners in jail for alleged bounced cheque

Source:ArabianBusiness.com 25 February 2010
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The owners of The World’s Great Britain island are currently in prison awaiting trial for allegedly bouncing a check for more than AED200 million ($54.4 million), it was reported on Thursday.
Safi Qurashi and his business partner Mustafa Nagri, who bought Great Britain for $60m in May 2008, have been in custody in Port Rashid prison for the past six weeks, according to Zawya Dow Jones.
Their detention throws into doubt the future of the island, as construction work is reported to have ground to a halt.
"We have done nothing wrong," Qurashi told the newswire service via a prison telephone from his cell. "We're not criminals, we are victims of the system."
Qurashi confirmed Nagri was also being held in Port Rashid for the same offence.
According to the report, the alleged bounced cheque relates to a land sale. It is illegal to bounce a cheque in the UAE.
In September, Qurashi told Arabian Business he had made changes to his initial plans to build a mix of residential, hotels and commercial projects, all reflecting British architecture, due to the impact of the downturn.
His plans to develop The World’s Moscow, which he bought for $58m in March 2008, remain on hold.
German construction firm, Kleindienst Group, announced on Wednesday it had broken ground on Germany island.
The developer of The Heart of Europe project officially began work on Germany Island with specialist engineering contractor Foundation Construction Group Limited (FCG) late on Tuesday, it said in a statement.

Dubai Mall partly evacuated after aquarium leak

Most of the bottom floor of the mall is in darkness except for Waitrose and the shops opposite.  Outside in the delivery vehicles car park, the water is 6 inches deep and the boys are out there pushing it around corners with mops.  They could have a long job ahead of them.
Reuters 25 Feb 2010
==========================

The aquarium at Dubai Mall, one of the world's largest and a symbol of Dubai's grandeur, is leaking and part of the mall has been evacuated, a police official said on Thursday.
"There was a small problem, a simple crack, and the water leaked," the official said, declining to be identified.
One of the largest tanks in the world, the aquarium features the world's largest viewing panel at 32.8 metres (107 ft 7 in) wide and 8.3 metres high.
Dubai Aquarium has been planned to have more than 33,000 living animals, representing more than 85 species including over 400 sharks and rays combined, according to Dubai Mall's website.
A Reuters witness said the mall had been partly evacuated and dozens of emergency vehicles were outside the mall, billed as one of the world's largest and operated by Emaar Properties
An Emaar spokeswoman confirmed it was investigating an incident at the mall.

Dubai losing its professional workforce

This may come as a surprise to those who live outside the area or who still believe the 'bouncing back, everything's fine and the property market is recovering' stories.  But, to quote Basil Fawlty, this article is 'stating the bleeding obvious' to anyone else. 
Source: ArabianBusiness.com 23 February 2010
Photo: I took it on a Nikon D40
==============================
Dubai lost 17 percent of its professional workforce in 2009, with Western foreign nationals hit the hardest, according to recruitment agency GulfTalent.
The Gulf Arab emirate, famous for its artificial, palm-shaped islands and glitzy lifestyle, has been rocked by a debt crisis that came on the heels of a property downturn.
"One of the biggest developments of 2009 has been a change in the fortunes of Dubai, from the fastest-growing hub in the region, sucking in much of the expatriate talent, to the city experiencing the region's most severe downturn," online recruiter GulfTalent said.
"Across the region, redundancies appear to have disproportionately hit senior executives and western nationals."
Despite Dubai's woes, the UAE remained the most attractive market in the region for expatriate professionals, with 74 percent of people surveyed by GulfTalent saying they wished to stay there.
As a whole, the country's professional workforce fell 16 percent, the survey showed. Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Bahraini capital Manama followed, shedding 14.4 percent and 12.8 percent of their workforces.
Salary growth also slowed in the region, with the average pay increase at 6.2 percent compared with 11.4 percent in 2008. GulfTalent saw little change in 2010, predicting growth of 6.3 percent.
In 2009, the UAE's average pay rise was 5.5 percent, down from 13.6 percent the previous year. In contrast, Oman saw an 8.4 percent rise, while Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia posted 7 percent increases.
The GulfTalent report was based on an online survey of 24,000 professional employees at the region's 3,000 largest corporations as well as a poll of 900 human resources managers and other interviews and reviews.

V8 Supercars in Abu Dhabi

A Mossad hit backfires… again

Source: Sydney Morning Herald 20 Feb. 2010
The author, Paul McGeough, is the author of 'Kill Khalid: Mossad's Failed Hit … And The Rise Of Hamas' (Allen & Unwin).
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THAT same old feeling for Benjamin Netanyahu must be excruciating. And it is probably cold comfort for the Israeli Prime Minister that his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, is likely to suffer along with him.
When Netanyahu last was his nation's leader, Mossad served up a dish of malodorous failure when it bungled the attempted assassination of a future leader of Hamas. That was in 1997, when the spy agency's plan to inject a mysterious poison into Khalid Mishal's ear turned to farce in the streets of Amman in Jordan.
Twelve years on, Netanyahu has again let Mossad loose and as a result he now presides over a diplomatic and PR nightmare in the wake of an otherwise successful hit on another senior Hamas figure who the Israelis claim was about to close an arms deal in the United Arab Emirates.
As is often the case in the Middle East, this one has percolated slowly - the body of the arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found in Room 230 of the plush Al Bustan Rotana Hotel on January 20.
But it was not until this week - with Mabhouh long in the grave and seemingly forgotten in the wider world - that the whole business erupted as a media sensation for Netanyahu.
Had Mossad's indiscretion been to offend just the Dubai sheikhs, already on their knees financially, Israel might have fobbed them off - possibly enlisting Washington to back-channel a half-hearted apology.
But in an operation that almost certainly required a personal sign-off by Netanyahu, Israel has given deep offence in London, Dublin, Paris and Berlin - because the Mossad team used these governments' passports as cover for its hitmen in Dubai.
But this story has more. The passport abuse is the cause of official offence in the capitals of these robust democracies - where opposition politicians, pressure groups and the media routinely put the squeeze on governments to help them overcome any reluctance to investigate such matters.
The capturing of virtually every move by the Mossad team on the emirate's ubiquitous closed-circuit TV cameras has made this an electrifying story around the world. Their antics at Dubai airport; at the hotel - some of them entering and leaving the room in which they killed the Hamas man; and Monty Pythonesque moments as others darted into rest rooms to emerge minutes later in new wig and/or beard disguises have provided near-voyeuristic images to go with an otherwise po-faced yarn about passport abuse.
And just to kick along the Israelis' sense of embarrassment, those damnable Dubaians have cleverly taken their mountain of CCTV footage and edited it down to a 27-minute clip so crisp that it warms the cockles of the hearts of editors at newsdesks around the globe.
Therein lies the silliness of the Mossad planners. Had they had just half an ear to the wall-to-wall coverage of a celebrated murder in Dubai - when an Egyptian billionaire had his lover, the Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, eliminated in 2008 - they would have been aware that local authorities had cracked the case by falling back on the same CCTV cameras that they used to piece together Mossad's madness.
Back in 1997, when Mossad tried to take down Khalid Mishal, who today heads Hamas, King Hussein of Jordan had Netanyahu firmly by the cojones because one of Mishal's quick-witted bodyguards managed to capture two of the Mossad agents - thereby forcing Israel to trade prisoners. Netanyahu's humiliation was complete when the then US president, Bill Clinton, forced him to hand over samples of the poison and an antidote to Jordanian doctors fighting to save Mishal's life.
In the case of the January visit to Dubai by Mossad, this sense of acute embarrassment at the capture of one's associates may fall to Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, Hamas's arch-rival in the contest for Palestinian hearts and minds, and who is buttressed as head of the Palestinian Authority by the US and Israel.
Details remain sketchy but Jordanian officials have delivered to their Dubai counterparts two Palestinians who reportedly had fled to Amman from Dubai in January after helping the Mossad team that murdered the Hamas arms dealer. In previous incarnations, both are said to have served in Abbas's Fatah-dominated security forces in Gaza, where their duty was to wrong-foot and nobble Hamas.
It is par for the course for Abbas's critics to ridicule the extent to which he is propped up by the US and Israel, helping to manage the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. But things could become very ugly for Abbas and Fatah if, as a result of events in Dubai, he is accused of collaborating with Israel in the killing of a Hamas leader who, if only because of the manner of his parting, will be revered as a true soldier for Palestine.
One of the admirable performances in all these curious circumstances is the performance of the Dubai authorities. They were entitled to be affronted by the behaviour of the Israelis, but they waited for a full month before announcing on Thursday that they were 99 per cent certain in their belief that Mossad dumped this mess on their doorstep.

Hamas death in Dubai: Details of suspects released

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police displaying pictures of the 11 wanted suspects
Source: Bloomberg, Gulf News

Photo: WAM
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Dubai Public Prosecution issued international arrest warrants for all suspects involved in the murder of a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, last month.
“The United Arab Emirates has international judicial cooperation with most of the world’s countries, allowing it to seek their extradition wherever they may be captured,” Attorney General Essam Essa al-Humaidan wrote in an e-mailed statement today.
Dubai police on Feb. 15 released names and photographs of 11 suspects they say took part in al-Mabhouh’s murder. Two Palestinians were detained in connection with the killing, Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said at a press conference yesterday. The 11 suspects included six British passport holders, three Irish, one German and one of French nationality, Tamim said. Dubai will submit their names to Interpol for arrest warrants, he said.
Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told Al Arabiya television today that the French Foreign Ministry contacted the organization and said the French passport used by one of the suspects was forged.
Al-Mabhouh, a founder of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Hamas movement, arrived in Dubai on Jan. 19 and his body was found in his hotel there the following day. Police believe he died of suffocation, although they have not ruled out “electric shock,” Tamim said. Further tests are being conducted, he said.
Hamas has accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of being behind the killing. The Israeli government, which has no diplomatic relations with the U.A.E., had no comment on the matter. Tamim said that Dubai has not ruled out any possibility in al-Mabhouh’s death.
Israel accused al-Mabhouh of being behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in 1988. Most of those alleged to have been involved in the soldiers’ deaths have since been detained or killed by Israel, including Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who died in an Israeli strike in 2004.

Hamas leader's death in Dubai: Dubai police to issue arrest warrants

Source and photo: Gulf News
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Dubai Police will issue arrest warrants for 11 suspects carrying European passports, believed to be the killers of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, the senior Hamas commander who was assassinated in a Dubai hotel room last month.
Two Palestinians have already been arrested and are being investigated on suspicions that they provided logistical support to the killers, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, said at a press conference held at the Media Office of the Dubai Government.
Some of the 11 suspects including a woman fled the country around the time of the crime on January 19. The Palestinians, however, are UAE residents, the police chief said.
Dubai Police managed to crack the case in less than 24 hours, Dahi said. "This is another achievement for Dubai Police."
A police video, combining CCTV footage from the Dubai airport, a number of hotels and shopping malls, showed the arrival of the suspects and Al Mabhouh into Dubai, their checking into various city hotels and the hours before the Palestinian commander was killed in room 230 in the Bustan Rotana Hotel, near the airport.
A surveillance team had followed the victim around the city. Some of the suspected killers disguised their appearance at various times.
"This is a highly sophisticated operation conducted by people who knew when Al Mabhouh would arrive in the country," Dahi said.
The suspects used "highly sophisticated communication instruments" and during their conversations they used encrypted messages, Dahi said. "The communication tools they used are not available in the UAE."
They came from several European countries and left to European destinations and one to Hong Kong. "We know where they are right now and even their residences," Dahi said.
"Arrest warrants through Interpol are being issued and if the European countries cooperated we will be highly appreciative but if they refused we will also reduce our cooperation with those authorities." He told Gulf News earlier that the UAE has no extradition treaties with many of those countries but the police expect full cooperation.
"In my personal opinion I think many parties are involved in the crime and all [Al Mabhouh's] enemies are potential suspects so it is not the time to point fingers at a certain party."
Dahi said the Hamas leader had arrived in Dubai from Damascus en route to Sudan and later to China. He was expected to be here for only one day.

Sunland 'misled the ASX' in Dubai case

Source: Sydney Morning Herald 11 Feb 2010 (and thanks to "Anonymous" for the heads up.)
Photo: the Waterfront website
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The company at the centre of a failed purchase in a huge development has contradicted its own claims to the stock exchange.  Sunland, a Gold Coast developer behind the fraud prosecution of two Australians in Dubai, has misled the ASX three times by claiming that it and its senior executive have never been investigated in the case.
When Matt Joyce and Marcus Lee were arrested and jailed in January last year, Dubai authorities confiscated the passport of another Australian, the Sunland Group's chief operating officer in the Middle East, David Brown.
Now Sunland's own barrister has contradicted the company's repeated claims to the stock exchange, by telling the Federal Court that Sunland and Mr Brown were in fact investigated in connection with their purchase of a plot on Dubai Waterfront, a colossal development project where Mr Joyce was the managing director and Mr Lee the head of commercial operations.
Mr Brown has since become a critical witness for the prosecution against Mr Joyce and Mr Lee in Dubai. But court documents from early last year, when Mr Brown was arranging bail and fighting for the return of his passport, refer to him as "the defendant" and "the accused", and as being "under investigation".
Sunland, nevertheless, released three statements to the stock exchange - in February, March and July. The first said "there is no investigation into Sunland"; the second said no allegations had been made against the company or its executives, and that Mr Brown, while a witness, "is not the subject of investigations"; the third said Mr Brown was "never subject of the investigations nor detained".
In the Dubai fraud case - and in a separate civil action against Mr Joyce and others in Australia - Sunland alleges it was duped into paying a "consulting fee" of more than $14 million to buy the plot on Dubai Waterfront, a subsidiary of the government-owned master developer Nakheel.
Sunland paid that fee to another Australian company, Prudentia, which claimed it had established a right to purchase the plot. Dubai authorities allege Prudentia had no such right, and Mr Brown's lawyers in Dubai noted that his status was changed from "defendant" to "victim".
Mr Joyce and Mr Lee, who insist they are innocent, are trapped in Dubai with their families, having spent nine months behind bars before they were released on bail to fight the fraud allegations. Their lawyers say they have been caught up in Dubai's spectacular property market collapse, in which Sunland, like many others, lost millions.
James Packer quit the Sunland board last August and sold his $28 million stake in the group in September without explanation, although at the time he was divesting a wide range of assets.
In the Federal Court in Brisbane in December, Pat O'Shea, SC, for Sunland, said "when these matters were first investigated, Sunland was also the subject of investigation, and, indeed, Mr Brown in particular was the subject of investigation". Mr Brown's emails were seized, Mr O'Shea said. He said this background "adds force" to Sunland's attempt to vindicate its reputation.
Sunland's statements to the stock exchange raise the prospect of investors suing if they believe they bought and sold shares when the market was not properly informed.
The Herald sent detailed questions to Sunland, which responded with a two-sentence statement: "Sunland stands by its previous ASX announcements that David Brown is a witness for the prosecution and has never been implicated in any wrongdoing. Sunland has and will continue to accurately inform the ASX and its investors as is required by law."
In a follow-up letter yesterday, Sunland's lawyers, DLA Phillips Fox, repeated that neither Sunland nor any of its employees were under suspicion of any wrongdoing "at the time of the initial statement to the ASX" on February 20 last year. They were "assisting the authorities, no more".
However, a Public Prosecution document in Dubai dated February 16 last year - four days before Sunland's first statement to the ASX - says Mr Brown was informed that it was "questioning him in his capacity as Defendant in the case". On March 16, another Public Prosecution document refers to his attempt to retrieve his passport, and still Mr Brown is described as the accused.
If a misleading statement to the stock exchange is deemed to be an attempt to manipulate share prices, a prosecution can lead to a maximum penalty of a $22,000 fine and/or five years' jail for an individual and a $110,000 fine for a corporation. Lesser breaches might lead to only civil remedies, and legal sources say it would be technically possible for some false statements not to be deemed as misleading or deceptive conduct - and escape any sanction.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it did not confirm or deny whether investigations were under way.
Matthew Gibbs, the corporate relations manager for the ASX, said: "Allegations about a company issuing misleading or deceptive statements are potential breaches of the law rather than ASX listing rules, and are matters for the attention of ASIC. Under ASX rules, companies are obligated to keep the market properly informed of all material events. Companies are aware of the serious consequences of failing to do so. ASX treats the market announcements made by companies in good faith, but would consider investigating their veracity if additional information was provided that suggested a breach of ASX rules."
In the Federal Court, Sunland is suing Mr Joyce, who lodged his defence last Friday, Prudentia and its director Angus Reed, who has been declared a fugitive in the Dubai fraud case. Mr Reed, back in Melbourne, and Prudentia say they acted with integrity.
Sunland is not suing Marcus Lee, the second Australian accused in Dubai. Mr Lee's lawyer, John Sneddon, has stressed that it has never been alleged that he gained, or even stood to gain, from the land deal. Mr Joyce's Australian lawyer, Martin Amad, has said his client "never received a cent" of Sunland's money.
In Dubai, meanwhile, the case drags on. The court reconvened on Sunday but was put off yet again because the first prosecution witness, a financial auditor, failed to turn up for the fourth time.

Ambassador claims fiancee hid beard under niqab

Source: Gulf News 10 Feb 2010
=======================
An Arab ambassador said he decided to call off his wedding immediately after he discovered that his wife-to-be, who wears a niqab, was bearded and cross-eyed.
The ambassador claimed that the bride's mother deceived his mother, when she went to see his Gulf national wife-to-be, by showing her pictures of the bride's sister.
The Arab man, who also holds the title of minister plenipotentiary, claimed to a Sharia court judge in Dubai that the bride's family showed his mother photos of the bride's sister and not the woman he was going to marry.
Sources close to the case told Gulf News that the groom only saw the woman a few times. He did not realise that she had a beard because she wore the niqab the few times he met her, added the source.
"Every time the couple met, the bride would do her best not to reveal her entire face. After the ambassador and the woman, who is a physician, signed the marriage contract, the groom was sitting with the bride… he claimed to the Sharia court officials that when he wanted to kiss his wife-to-be, he discovered that she was bearded and cross-eyed as well," claimed the source.
The ambassador then decided to call off the wedding party and lodged a divorce claim alleging that he was tricked by his parents-in-law and incurred emotional and moral damage.
In his lawsuit, the groom also asked the bride to repay him his Dh500,000, the amount which he claimed he spent on jewellery, clothes and gifts.
Dismissed
During the trial, the bride asked the judge to dismiss the groom's lawsuit and demanded him to pay her alimony after the Arab called off the wedding party.
Gulf News also learnt that the ambassador requested the Sharia court to refer the Gulf national woman to a specialist to have her examined for hormonal deficiencies.
The court referred the bride to a specialist who countered the ambassador's claims and reported that she did not suffer any hormonal problems.
The court divorced the couple and rejected the groom's request that the pre-marriage gifts be returned.

And now we know why

Source: Sydney Morning Herald
==================
It must have been a terrifying moment for visitors to the world's tallest tower, which only opened last month.
They heard what sounded like a small explosion, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground.
Inside an elevator, 15 people were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors.
Outside on the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded and some began to panic.
Shortly after the drama unfolded on Saturday evening, the half-mile-high tower that was supposed to be one of Dubai's proudest achievements shut down to the public one month after its grandiose opening.
It was the latest embarrassment for the once-booming Gulf city-state that is now mired in a deep financial crisis.
Witnesses who were on the 124th floor observation deck at the time and a Dubai rescue official recounted on Tuesday the chain of events that led up to the shutdown.
Emaar Properties, the state-linked company that owns Burj Khalifa, has said little about the incident and nothing at all about an elevator malfunction.
It had no comment on Tuesday. It remains unclear what caused the elevator to the observation deck - the only part of the building that was open - to fail.
Michael Timms, 31, an American telecommunications engineer who lives in Dubai, was on the observation deck with his cousin Michele Moscato when the ordeal began.
"It almost sounded like a small explosion. It was a really loud bang," Timms said.
About 45 minutes later, rescue crews arrived and pried open the elevator door, he added. The faulty elevator was caught between floors, so rescuers hoisted a ladder into the shaft to help those trapped inside crawl out.
Abu Naseer, a spokesman for Dubai's civil defence department, confirmed the incident. He said the call for help came in about 6.20pm on Saturday evening.
Emergency crews used another elevator to reach the observation deck and were able to rescue all 15 people stuck in elevator unharmed, he said.
Emaar, which owns the 2717-foot (828 metre) building, has not responded to specific questions about the incident.
Local newspapers reported the shutdown of Burj Khalifa on Monday but it is still not clear exactly when the building was closed.
The company issued a brief statement on Monday saying the viewing platform was temporarily shut for "maintenance and upgrade" because of "unexpected high traffic".
It also hinted at electrical problems, saying "technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors".
Emaar has made no mention of problems with the elevators, angering some of those involved in the incident.
"What just kind of shocks me is that they were going to brush this under the rug to save face. If it broke, at least tell people it broke," Timms said.
"I was really starting to get upset, getting really nervous," said Moscato, 29, a nurse visiting from Columbia, South Carolina. "I started crying."
She said she and Timms - along with other visitors, some in raised voices - asked to use the stairs because they felt uncomfortable taking the elevator back down, but were told that was not allowed.
Moscato said one of those trapped in the elevator told her later that the lights went off and the car began to fall before the brakes kicked in. It was not possible to independently verify the account.
The $1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) Burj Khalifa opened with a lavish fireworks display and other celebrations on January 4 after being beset by a series of delays.
Only the observation deck was being used for now as work continues on the rest of the building's interior. The first tenants were supposed to move in this month.
The tower more than 160 stories, though the exact number is not known. The tapering, silvery tower ranks not only as the highest building but also as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.
The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up.

Burj Khalifa observation deck closes

 Source: Associated Press/NZ Herald
============
The world's tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.
Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa's viewing platform - the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet.
But a lack of information from the spire's owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building - including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower's more than 160 floors - was affected by the shutdown.
The indefinite closure, which began on Sunday, comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health.
The Persian Gulf city-state had hoped the 828-metre Burj Khalifa would be a major tourist draw.
Dubai has promoted itself by wowing visitors with over-the-top attractions such as the Burj, which juts like a silvery needle out of the desert and can be seen from miles around.
In recent weeks, thousands of tourists have lined up for the chance to buy tickets for viewing times, often days in advance, that cost more than US$27 (NZ$38) apiece.
Now many of those would-be visitors, such as Wayne Boyes, a tourist from near Manchester, England, must get back in line for refunds.
"It's just very disappointing," said Boyes, 40, who showed up at the Burj's entrance with a ticket for an afternoon time slot only to be told the viewing platform was closed.
"The tower was one of my main reasons for coming here," he said.
The precise cause of the $1.5 billion Dubai skyscraper's temporary shutdown remained unclear.
In a brief statement responding to questions, building owner Emaar Properties blamed the closure on "unexpected high traffic," but then suggested that electrical problems were also at fault.
"Technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors and the public will be informed upon completion," the company said, adding that it is "committed to the highest quality standards at Burj Khalifa."
Despite repeated requests, a spokeswoman for Emaar was unable to provide further details or rule out the possibility of foul play.
Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects and the man charged with coordinating the tower's construction, could not be reached.
Construction workers at the base of the tower said they were unaware of any problems.
Power was reaching some parts of the building. Strobe lights warning aircraft flashed and a handful of floors were illuminated after nightfall.
Emaar did not say when the observation deck would reopen.
Ticket sales agents were accepting bookings starting on Valentine's Day this Sunday, though one reached by The Associated Press could not confirm the building would reopen then.
Tourists affected by the closure are being offered the chance to rebook or receive refunds.
The shutdown comes at a sensitive time for Dubai. The city-state is facing a slump in tourism - which accounts for nearly a fifth of the local economy - while fending off negative publicity caused by more than US$80 billion in debt it is struggling to repay.
Ervin Hladnik-Milharcic, 55, a Slovenian writer planning to visit the city for the first time this month, said he hoped the Burj would reopen soon.
"It was the one thing I really wanted to see," he said.
"The tower was projected as a metaphor for Dubai. So the metaphor should work.
There are no excuses."
Dubai opened the skyscraper on January 4 in a blaze of fireworks televised around the world.
The building had been known as the Burj Dubai during more than half a decade of construction, but the name was suddenly changed on opening night to honour the ruler of neighbouring Abu Dhabi.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two of seven small sheikdoms that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi hosts the federation's capital and holds most of the country's vast oil reserves. It has provided Dubai with US$20 billion in emergency cash to help cover its debts.
Questions were raised about the building's readiness in the months leading up to the January opening.
The opening date had originally been expected in September, but was then pushed back until sometime before the end of 2009. The eventual opening date just after New Year's was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the Dubai ruler's ascent to power.
There were signs even that target was ambitious. The final metal and glass panels cladding the building's exterior were installed only in late September.
Early visitors to the observation deck had to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows caked with dust - a sign that cleaning crews had not yet had a chance to scrub them clean.
Work is still ongoing on many of the building's other floors, including those that will house the first hotel designed by Giorgio Armani that is due to open in March.
The building's base remains largely a construction zone, with entrance restricted to the viewing platform lobby in an adjacent shopping mall.
The first of some 12,000 residential tenants and office workers are supposed to move in to the building this month.
The Burj Khalifa boasts more than 160 stories. The exact number is not known.
The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up on the 124th floor.

The Facebook Fatwa

 

Source: Gulf News
========================
A fatwa or a religious decree, passed by a prominent Muslim cleric branding the use of Facebook as un-Islamic, has caused a stir among the loggers onto the popular social networking website and other Muslim clergy.  In the fatwa, Shaikh Abdul Hameed Al Attrash, an ex-official at Al Azhar, said the Facebook is a tool of harm and time-wasting.  Al Azhar's Islamic Research Academy has refuted reports that its fatwa committee issued a ruling against the social network.
"The committee hasn't issued any decrees regarding Facebook," said Shaikh Sa'eed Amer, head of the academy's fatwa, or religious-edict, committee. "We haven't even had any inquiries about the religious legitimacy of using it or not."
"Such fatwas give a very bad impression about Islam and Muslims," said Hussain Abdul Azeem, a commerce school post-graduate. "I use the Facebook to communicate with my friends worldwide and learn about the latest news. Do I really commit a sin as the one who issued the fatwa claimed?" he told Gulf News.
In the fatwa, the latest in a series of controversial fatwas in this predominantly Muslim country, Shaikh Abdul Hameed Al Attrash, a former official at Al Azhar, said Facebook is a tool of harm and time-wasting, and its users are sinners. Al Azhar is the Sunni Muslim world's influential seat of learning.
"The Facebook and other networking sites could result in the proliferation of illicit affairs," Al Attrash was quoted as saying by media.
"Surfing such websites makes it easier to develop forbidden relations with others ... While one spouse is away, the other turns to chatting online, thus wasting time and falls into the trap of illicit affairs. This is an instrument that destroys family and violates Sharia (Islamic law)."
He based his opinion on the findings of a recent study released by the state-run National Centre for Criminological and Sociological Studies, which showed that one in five Egyptian men, who divorced their spouses, had affairs through the internet.
"Generalisation is against logic as anything can be good or bad depending on how one uses it," said Abdul Halim Qader, a Muslim scholar from Al Azhar.
"One can use a glass to drink water or alcohol. By the same vein, Facebook can be a useful or harmful tool of communication. It all depends on how you handle it," he told Gulf News. "Accordingly, one cannot pass a conclusive ban on it."
A recent torrent of controversial fatwas, popularised by an explosion of Islamic satellite TV stations, have triggered calls to restrict their issuance and punish those who are not qualified to make such edicts.
In May 2007, Al Azhar University, Egypt's leading governmental Islamic seminary sacked a professor after decreeing on a TV talk show that it is permissible for women to breastfeed their male colleagues at workplace as a way around segregation of women and men at work.
According to his fatwa, if a woman fed a male colleague "directly from her breast" at least five times, they would establish a family bond and thus would not violate Islamic Sharia by being together at work.

Irish connection in Dubai Hamas murder

Source: The Herald (Ireland) 5th February 2010
=========================================
Members of a hit squad who killed a top Hamas military commander used Irish passports to enter and leave Dubai, it's been claimed. The suspected Israeli hit team, including at least one woman, entered the United Arab Emirates using Irish documents, police authorities said.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (50), held responsible by Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, died in mysterious circumstances on January 20 in a Dubai hotel room. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman told the Herald today: "We are aware of the media reports and we are in contact with authorities locally to try and determine the truth of the reports." Al-Mabhouh was said to have been shocked with an electric weapon held to his legs and then suffocated or poisoned.
Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing, but Israeli news media claimed al-Mabhouh had many enemies and could have been killed by other Arab factions.
Up to seven people were said to have been involved in al-Mabhouh's killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a "European country" after the killing, according to police sources in Dubai.
Extradited
Declining to reveal their identities, an official said UAE security personnel were co-ordinating with Interpol to have them extradited.
Al-Mabhouh had been out for most of the day and returned to his room only after 9pm, police said. Pathologists were said to have determined the cause of death as asphyxiation, probably with a pillow found near the body and stained with blood. A room cleaner found his body the next day.
He had travelled to Dubai under another name. The victim was said to have been in charge of weapons procurement for Hamas and was on a mission in Dubai.
His brother said it was not the first attempt on his life. Six months ago, he was rushed to hospital in Dubai in a coma and treated for poisoning.
Mr Mabhouh's funeral was held in Damascus, where he had lived for 20 years with his wife and children.
In 1986, US officials, including Oliver North, reportedly used Irish passports to travel to Iran to offer missiles for hostages. The passports were said to be real but the identities written into the documents were fake.

Gulf Bike Festival, Dubai

Death in Dubai: whodunnit?

Source: Sydney Morning Herald. The writer, Jason Koutsoukis, is the SMH's Middle East correspondent.
========================
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death in Dubai had all the hallmarks of a hit by the Jewish state's spy agency, writes Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem.
The Hamas gunrunner Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arrived in Dubai on an Emirates flight from Syria at 3pm on January 19.
The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, said Mabhouh checked into his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel about 4pm. After depositing some documents in the hotel safe, Mabhouh went out for dinner, arriving back at his room by 9pm.
Police believe that shortly after, the usually security-conscious Mabhouh, who routinely blocked the doors to his hotel rooms with heavy furniture, opened his door to a woman.
Hours later Mabhouh, 49, was dead, believed poisoned by a mystery drug that at first led investigators to think he had suffered a heart attack.
Dubai police believe that the suspects, at least seven people carrying European passports, were out of the country before Mabhouh's body was discovered by hotel housekeeping staff at midday on January 20.
Later that day, Hamas officials in Damascus went so far as to put out a statement saying that Mabhouh had died of natural causes.
Nearly 10 days later, autopsy blood results returned from France suggested otherwise.
In the ever-suspicious world of Middle Eastern intrigue, Mabhouh's death had all the hallmarks of an assassination by Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad.
Israel certainly did not lack motive.
In 1989, Mabhouh was part of a team of Palestinian resistance fighters who kidnapped and killed two Israeli soldiers stationed in the Gaza Strip.
Israel either killed or arrested most of those believed responsible for the deaths, but Mabhouh got away.
Eventually arriving in the Syrian capital, where Hamas had been allowed to establish its political headquarters, Mabhouh rose through the ranks to become the movement's liaison with its main weapons supplier, Tehran, responsible for co-ordinating the movement of weapons from Iran to Gaza.
In November the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major-General Amos Yadlin, appeared before the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
Yadlin said Hamas had just test-fired a rocket with a range of 60 kilometres, within range of Israel's business and financial capital, Tel Aviv, a rocket that he said had been supplied by Iran.
At Mabhouh's funeral in Damascus, 10 days after his death, the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, vowed revenge against Israel.
''You have assassinated an enormous man who bravely killed some of your soldiers, but this is a passing joy,'' Meshal said. ''I tell you, Zionists, do not be joyous. You killed him, but his sons will fight you.''
In September 1997, Meshal was himself the target of a bungled Mossad assassination attempt in the Jordanian capital of Amman that bears some resemblance to the way Mabhouh was killed. Meshal was getting out of his car when a man posing as a Canadian tourist approached him and squirted something in his ear.
At first, Meshal seemed fine. It was not until hours later, as he slipped in and out of consciousness, that doctors realised that he had been injected with a powerful painkiller that was shutting down his respiratory system.
Luckily for Meshal, his bodyguard had seized one of the attackers, whom local police were able to tie to Mossad. King Hussein of Jordan pressured Israel's then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Israel again today, to hand over the antidote.
Since the 1960s, when Mossad captured the leading Nazi Adolf Eichman, Israel has been accused by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hezbollah of involvement in the assassination of their organisations' leaders. Israel has never responded to the accusations.
''The one part of this story that suggests Israel had something to do with it is that Mabhouh was injected with something,'' says a former Israeli security operative who spoke to the Herald this week.
Asking that only his first name be used, Itamar, who is the managing director of a specialist security consultancy, said he neither would, nor could, confirm Israel's involvement.
''But the method is indicative. Very clean and quiet, and it enabled the team to exit the country well before the body was discovered,'' he said.
The parts of the story that did not add up, Itamar said, were suggestions that Mabhouh had been tortured with an electrical device, and then possibly strangled.
''I don't think a highly trained Israeli team would bother with this simply because it would take up too much time,'' Itamar said.
So if not Israel, who?
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week said many people across the Arab world wanted Mabhouh dead.
''Unofficially, Hamas has conceded that quite a few parties had an interest in taking out Mabhouh, who had become central to the Iran-Gaza Strip axis,'' the report said, without saying who those parties might be.
Whether or not Israel was involved, proving it will be near impossible. ''Dubai police say they have the identities of seven suspects,'' Itamar said.
''Why haven't they been released? They say they have hotel security footage of people entering Mabhouh's room. Why have we not seen it?
''The answer is because any information or photographs, or security footage they have, it doesn't tell us anything.''
SUSPECTED MOSSAD ASSASSINATIONS
Zuheir Mohsen: The Palestinian leader of a pro-Syrian faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was shot in the head on July 15, 1979, as he returned to his flat in Cannes, France.
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir, more commonly known as Abu Jihad: A high ranking member of the PLO faction Fatah, he was shot multiple times in front of his wife and children near his home in Tunisia.
Fathi Shikaki: Founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he was shot multiple times on October 26, 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta.
Imad Mughniyeh: Liaison officer between the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and its main ally, Iran, Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus on February 12, 2008, when the headrest of a car he was in exploded.
Mohammed Suleiman: A Syrian general and adviser to the President, Bashar al-Assad, and an intermediary between the Syrian government, Hezbollah and Iran. He was shot in the head on August 1, 2008, on a beach near the Syrian city of Tartous.

Expat workers pose threat to our existence - Minister

Source: Gulf News
=======================================
Speaking at the 15th Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) annual conference in the capital, Dr Majeed Al Alawi, Bahrain's Minister of Labour, said, "No one would ever believe that the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, which employ 17 million foreign workers, have more than one million unemployed citizens."
Expatriates who come to the Gulf region for jobs on time-bound assignments never leave, and pose a threat to "our existence", a Bahraini minister warned on Tuesday.
Speaking at the 15th Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) annual conference in the capital, Dr Majeed Al Alawi, Bahrain's Minister of Labour, said, "No one would ever believe that the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, which employ 17 million foreign workers, have more than one million unemployed citizens."
He added that "this influx of foreigners poses a threat to our existence," citing the situation in Singapore and the Maldives, "where foreign workers had been brought on temporary contracts and are now ruling these countries."
Dr Al Alawi, who is driving labour reforms in Bahrain, said the economic crisis has caused 50 per cent of projects in the Gulf to come to a halt. "But this has not been accompanied by a decline in the numbers of foreign workers.
"He who thinks this foreign manpower in the region comes for completing a project and leaves once it is completed is wrong. They come to stay. They buy and sell in their market created on our lands but accommodate no Arabs."
Dr Al Alawi, who was an opposition activist living in exile in London, returned home after the Bahraini ruler declared an amnesty for opposition figures in 1999.
On national identity, he said: "This way countries were lost and we, in the Gulf, are facing the same threat. If this is not happening now, it will happen in the next generation."
Another aspect of the crisis, he said is that the construction sector, which only contributes 8 per cent to the GDP, but accommodates 40 per cent of the foreign workforce.
Dr Al Alawi has advocated ending the sponsorship system and allowing free movement of expatriate workers between jobs in the GCC countries.

Dubai Police and Hamas refute Israeli claims

Source: Gulf News 3 Feb 2010
==============
Chief of Dubai Police and Hamas officials on Tuesday made light of an Israeli press report pointing fingers at Arab parties, and not Israelis, for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai two weeks ago.
"As usual, they are lying," Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, told Gulf News when reached for his comment on a report published by the Haaretz newspaper.
Hamas officials, also, accused the Israeli media of deception and "covering their crime", a reference to the killing of senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his hotel room.
Claims
According to the report published by Haaretz, preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas "suggests that the assassination …. was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government, and not by Israel's Mossad spy agency".
The paper went on to claim: "A Hamas source told Haaretz on Monday that Al Mabhouh was wanted by authorities in both Jordan and Egypt, where he previously spent a year in prison."
Hamas officials, however, stressed that no official from the resistance group would give such statements to an Israeli newspaper. Osama Hamdan, Hamas spokesperson in Beirut, said: "This is fabrication… They [Israelis] are aiming to create problem."
Investigations ongoing
Musheer Al Masri, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, too, scoffed at the Israeli report. He explained that "investigations were not completed until this moment".
Investigations into the assassination, however, had come a long way and would hopefully be completed in the near future, he said.
Lt Gen Dahi, meanwhile, asserted that investigations into the case are being conducted "in authentic, technical and scientific way".
In a statement carried by WAM, he observed: "Anyone attempting to pass unseen behind our backs, and gets involved in matters that are considered as crimes by the law should protect their own backs."
He added: "This goes for whoever enters the country whether they are from Hamas, Mossad or any other intelligence service."
Dubai Police have not excluded any possible angle in the killing but indicated that the crime points to Mossad involvement.
Few details have emerged so far about the assassination as well as the purpose of Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai. Haaretz said he had left the hotel "between 4.30 pm and 5.00 pm for a meeting" and that "Hamas claims to know the identity of his Dubai contact".
Hamas officials, however, remained tight-lipped.
"It is difficult for me to give information on this issue in particular," Hamdan replied to a question on Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai.
"This is a sensitive issue, and is related to the [ongoing] investigations. We are keen that nothing will come out of our side that will distort them [investigations]," he explained.

Show me the money!

An article about one of several/many (depends who you ask) UK companies owed money in Dubai.  There are also similar reports related to the Burj Khalifa (Samsung) and the Dubai Metro (Mitsubishi).
Source: ArabianBusiness.com
===============================
A UK engineering firm says it is owed $14.9m in Dubai.  Hyder Consulting said it was chasing $14.9m owed to it in Dubai. British engineering firm Hyder Consulting said on Tuesday that it was on track to beat profit forecasts in its full-year results, despite still being owed GBP9.4m ($14.9m) by Dubai clients.
The consultancy, which earns 70 percent of its revenue outside the UK, said it has scaled back its work in Dubai, but retained a strong order book in the broader Gulf region.
In an interim statement, the firm said it was “working hard to collect outstanding receivables in Dubai” and that its debt and work in progress now amounts to £9.4m across a number of clients.
A consortium of British firms last year claimed to be owed some $600m in outstanding payments from state-backed firms in Dubai.
The company, which advised on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa project, said it was poised to report full year revenue and operating profit “slightly ahead” of market expectations, after absorbing operating costs of around GBP3m.
Operating profits for the Middle East region were down on the previous period, the company said, a result of the decline in work in Dubai following the real estate crash.
In the Asia Pacific region, operating profits were substantially ahead of the previous period, bolstered by strong sales in the transport and property sectors, Hyder said.
However, results from Europe were well below the prior year, partly due to redundancy costs, the company said.