The Crime Desk: Dubai is the city of luxury living. There, thousands of people from different countries around the world have built a huge mountain of secret wealth. Especially businessmen, political figures, fugitives, money launderers, and criminals have built mountains of wealth there. Information on these resources has emerged in the global investigative journalism project ‘Dubai Unlocked’. There are 394 Bangladeshis on this list.
The investigation was led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, and Norwegian media outlet eTwentyfour. Representatives of 74 media outlets from 58 countries have been searching for 6 months.
OCCRP published the report titled ‘Dubai Unlocked’ on its website on Tuesday. Here comes how Dubai has become the top choice city for the rich around the world.
According to the report, some Pakistani nationals have built assets worth $12.5 billion in the city. The list includes three children of the country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, the late General Pervez Musharraf, and even the son of Pakistan’s former army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa. Pakistan is going through a severe economic crisis. There is a rush for financial aid. But it turns out, their politicians and military leaders are not short of cash.
According to the investigation report, 17,000 Pakistani nationals own assets listed in the leaked documents. The actual number of Pakistani owners of residential property in the city is 22,000. This points to the situation in Pakistan: while the poor wallow in skyrocketing inflation, the rich enjoy the high life with fancy apartments.
According to the research, Dubai has now become the top choice of the rich. Criminals, fugitives, political figures, and legitimate people are also trying to stash money there. In fact, many of these owners in Dubai are arms dealers and drug lords.
For example, former Afghan government official and accused war criminal Asadullah Khalid has made Dubai his home. Moreover, Bashar al-Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf and his brother Ihab also own property there. Uruguayan gang star Sebastián Marcet, wanted for drug trafficking across South America, also owns a house in Dubai.
In addition, 32-year-old Joseph Johannes Liesdeckers, also known as ‘Chubby Joes’, who is on the EU’s most wanted list for drug trafficking, also has a home in the Grandeur Residences on Dubai’s artificial islands.
According to the report, Indians top the list in terms of residential property ownership in Dubai. Pakistanis are second on the list. This list includes politicians, military leaders, and bureaucrats.
394 Bangladeshi nationals were listed in the leaked information on secret assets in Dubai, but their names have not been released. According to the report, at least 394 Bangladeshis have secretly built wealth in the city. 641 properties are owned by Bangladeshis. The value of these properties, owned by Bangladeshis, is more than 225 million dollars.
The list of the top 10 richest people in the world and their wealth has also been published in Dubai. It shows that India’s Mukesh Ambani has a wealth of $11,200 million, India’s MA Yusuf Ali and his family have a wealth of $7.8 billion, India’s Shamshir Vyalil has a wealth of $3.5 billion, Oman’s Suhail Bahwan has a wealth of $190 million, Russia’s Andrei Molchanov and his family’s wealth of $1.3 billion, Vinod Adani of Cyprus $2,220 million, Changpeng Zhao of Canada $3,300 million, Socket Burman of the United Kingdom $1,500 million, Igor Makarov of Cyprus $2,100 million, and Naguib Sabiris, a citizen of Egypt, and his family have a net worth of $3.8 billion.
