Brit property firm owner flees Dubai overnight with millions

A Briton who owns a real estate brokerage firm in Dubai disappeared and is believed to have fled the country after swindling millions of dirhams from the market and failing to pay the company’s nearly 80 employees for three months.

The Arabic language daily Al Bayan, quoted a police source, said the Briton himself had his old firm shut down after it was involved in massive fraud operations and that he “simply” opened another company in the emirate.

The new firm’s nearly 80 employees headed for their offices as usual on that morning but were surprised to find that the firm was closed, the paper said.

“They then learned that the owner had fled the country with millions of dirhams… they said he had not paid them for three months,” it said.

It quoted the police source as saying the man’s name had been sent to Interpol to hunt him down and bring him to justice in the emirate.

The paper quoted a source at the Real Estate Regulation Authority (Rera) in Dubai as saying the company is S and K (Smith and Ken) Estate Agents and that it had tried to spread  “lies and rumours” about Dubai’s property market through the foreign media.

“The company only wanted to cover up its losses, malpractices and violations of the real estate laws in Dubai,” the source said.

The paper noted that the Department of Economic Development shut that company in July after it filed for liquidation because of massive losses.

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