Judge Refat Mahmoud, President of the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour, said yesterday that he wished to bring the Deyaar 3 corruption case to a swift conclusion.
Nine defendants are accused of embezzling a total of Dh271 million from the developer. In the dock are ZS (American), GK (Indian), SB (Lebanese), KM (Argentinean), HS (Palestinian), JB (Indian), HS (Pakistani), JM (Indian) and NS (Indian).
The case is an offshoot of two other cases also concerning alleged corruption at Deyaar that are being heard by Dubai Criminal Court.
Lawyer Ali Al Shamsi, who represents ZS and SB, said he wished to hear from witness Mohammed Mustafa Hussein, who compiled an audit report related to the case and did not attend yesterday's session.
Judge Mahmoud said he would adjourn the case one more time so discussions with the witness could be completed and he could be brought to the next session.
Al Shamsi said he wanted to hold discussion with Hussein regarding details related to the value of commissions and remunerations paid by Deyaar to staff of Dubai Islamic Bank and some points mentioned in the audit report.
At a former session the court heard testimony from Hussein, an accountancy expert at the Financial Audit Department of the Dubai Ruler's Office.
Hussein said ZS sold two plots in Abu Dhabi owned by Deyaar using the unlimited powers granted to him by the company's former chairman and former minister MK. Deyaar made a profit on the sales but the gains were less than they would have been if the land had been sold at the prevailing market prices.
He added that ZS spent Dh530,000 of Deyaar funds illegally, violating a policy approved by the company's board. And Hussein said ZS embazzled Dh330,000 as commission.
In addition ZS allegedly returned Dh3.5m to an Indian investor, even though Deyaar had provided services in return for the sum. As a result Deyaar lost that amount.
ZS allegedly spent Dh23.2m under the heading of "sale rewards", though people who received the rewards had nothing to do with sales and one of them, WS, the manager of Deyaar's projects department, was a relative of ZS.
Hussein said ZS spent Dh3.8m on rewards for some employees at Deyaar and Dubai Islamic Bank without the approval of Deyaar's board – he simply put the chairman's signature and his signature on the spending order.
The case has been adjourned until January 18.
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