How Dirty Money Finds a Home in Dubai Real EstateBut the key to the UAE’s transformation was a set of policies that enticed foreigners from around the globe, including laws that made it easy for them to purchase real estate and the creation of free-trade zones with major tax exemptions.
But the key was a set of policies that enticed foreigners from around the globe, including laws that made it easy for them to purchase real estate and the creation of free-trade zones with major tax exemptions.
But behind the glittering facade is another factor that aided the city’s rise:
Dubai’s high-rises and villas have served as a safe haven for some of the world’s most wanted criminals, due in part to the secrecy its real estate sector affords.
The city’s property records are difficult to obtain and cannot be easily searched. In some cases, even international law enforcement officials have been unaware that people in their sights owned property in Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. But thanks to a new leak of data, reporters have identified scores of alleged criminals, individuals facing sanctions, and political figures accused of corruption who have owned property there.
Take, for example, the iconic palm-shaped artificial archipelago known as Palm Jumeirah, where we found an apartment belonging to Obaid Khanani,a Pakistani national who, along with his father, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2016 for allegedly running a money laundering organization that has moved billions of dollars across the globe on behalf of drug traffickers and organized crime groups.
Then over in the nearby Palm Tower Dubai is an apartment owned by Danilo Vunjao Santana Gouveia, a Brazilian businessman better known as “Dubaiano,” who was indicted in 2018 on charges including money laundering and fraud for allegedly running a massive Bitcoin pyramid scheme. Since moving to Dubai, he has taken up a new career in the city as a musician, which he details on an Instagram account alongside photographs of him posing in front of various locations in the city, including the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab Jumeirah skyscraper.
And in the Grandeur Residences is Joseph Johannes Leijdekkers, a.k.a. Bolle Jos (“Chubby Jos”), alleged by Dutch authorities to be a major player in the global cocaine trade.
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