Ex-Drake & Scull CEO faces charges in Jordan
03 February, 2021
Dubai-founded contractor Drake & Scull said charges have already been brought against its former chief executive Khaldoun Tabari on his residential home country of Jordan.
Felony fraud charges were brought by the general public prosecutor in Amman against Mr Tabari, his daughter Zeina and a good third former company employee, Saleh Mustafa Muradweij, for "buying, selling, or managing moveable and immoveable state or public authority funds", the company said in a good statement to the Dubai Financial Market.
A misdemeanour charge of fraud and breach of trust in addition has been brought against Mr Tabari and his daughter through the period where they managed Drake & Scull in the UAE, the statement said.
The charges against the pair include "squandering sums of money and appointing an external legal advisor without approval from the company’s board" and paying exaggerated service fees to advisers.
Mr Tabari told The National there “are many things that are wrong” found in the company’s statement.
The case has been brought because of requests to extradite the former executive this past year, that was dismissed in local courts, he said.
Under a treaty to that your UAE and Jordan are signatories, if an extradition request is turned down by either country, an entity looking for charges in a single jurisdiction may bring them in another.
The three charges have a total value of Dh14 million ($3.8m) and are the main 15 promises the company taken to the UAE's federal prosecutor in 2018, Mr Tabari confirmed.
The Jordanian charges relate to payments to consultants associated with three projects - its One at Palm Jumeirah jv and two schemes in Saudi Arabia - that Mr Tabari said were contemporaneously approved by a lot of the board's nine directors.
The charge associated with the appointment of a legal adviser, which the company said was not authorised by the board, was done so with the approval of internal and external lawyer and its own chairman, Mr Tabari argued.
Drake & Scull said hearings have previously taken place in the criminal court found in Amman in the existence of Mr Tabari. Both Ms Tabari and Mr Muradweij didn't show up at hearings and warrants have been issued because of their arrest, in line with the company.
"Neither my daughter, or Mr Muradweij can be purchased in Jordan," Mr Tabari explained. He'll attend court hearings as expected, he added.
"My position remains the same. I have served the business with the best integrity and and will continue steadily to defend myself as I have done going back two and half years," he said. He argued that he is being utilized as "a scapegoat" by the company's current executives to justify its plight.
Mr Tabari headed Drake & Scull from 1998, overseeing its flotation on the Dubai stock market found in 2008 and remaining at the helm until August 2016, when he stepped again after former Arcadis Middle East brain Wael Allan was appointed as leader to lead a restructuring.
Mr Allan oversaw a good capital reorganisation plan, which resulted in Dh1.7 billion of company shares being cancelled to expunge historic losses and Tabarak Investment to arrive as a strategic investor with a Dh500m capital injection. He was dismissed by DSI in August 2017.
However, the company didn't rebound and losses continuing to mount. Its shares had been suspended in November 2018 and by the end of last September its accumulated losses reached Dh4.88bn.
Drake & Scull is currently in a formal restructuring process and has been focusing on a plan that was because of get presented to creditors last month.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com