This is a mail from an Ismaili who moved to Dubai with a view of progressing his family life for a better & brighter future, which has now ended up in a tale of distress and huge financial loss.
I made an investment with prominent Ismaili from France who had previously been a Jamati leader – Anil Hassanaly. Initially the investment was deemed to be quite lucrative and after completion the rewards would have been very positive.
We both invested US$500,000.00 each and were equal partners in a transaction went smoothly we had all the due diligence and independent verification. My then partner Anil took custody to store it whilst we waited for the buyer whom we had already agreed a price with, all that was required was a 2-week wait, this extended to a further four weeks due to matters outside our control. When we were at the point of delivery to our client, the goods were delivered to the location by Anil where the buyer arranged for his own due diligence and verification.
The result was shocking as the report showed the goods had been Swapped!! We had it checked again at another location and the result was the same. This was a bad situation as the buyer would not pay for goods which were not as initially described.
My partner Anil decided Not to communicate with me at all. I called him, e-mailed him and sent him SMS messages all week and no response at all.
It was then I called the arbitration board chairman Wazir Daradia (vice president) who failed to return my calls for 2 days. I then called the President of the council Naushad Rashid and informed him what had happened and that I needed assistance to get this matter resolved with my partner in this deal. He advised that he would arrange for Rafiq Jaffer (a practicing lawyer) to be in touch with me and that the process would begin to allow us to resolve the matter.
The initial phone call to Rafiq seemed fair and he was fully updated of the matter including the documents I had in my possession. We had arranged for a face to face meeting to go over things, however he requested the documents to be scanned and e-mailed to him initially for his own consumption.
After 2 days he called to inform me that he had a face to face meeting with Anil, and that he would organise and meeting for both of us where we can resolve the matter at the council offices. 1 day later Rafiq again called to let me know they will no longer be doing anything as the matter involved a large sum of money and that the council does not get involved in commercial transactions? This was a 180 turnaround from the conversations and remit of the body who agreed to mediate only. I tried to discuss the matter and to reason with him to no avail. He was adamant that the turnaround they made was valid irrespective of him contradicting himself. During this conversation he made me aware that he had passed the copies of my documents to Anil and that he was only aware of partial matters as the Anil was in constant touch with the council President.
I was aware that a business partner of Anil’s was married to the President’s sister, however I did not think that this relationship would be used for such tactical maneuvering?
Naiveness on my part, but it seems my ethics and that of our senior leaders are vastly different?
The maneuvering of these matters and delays to prevent me making an official complaint to the local authorities was used to allow Anil to skip the country and go back to France, at least for Deedar and thereafter an unknown period, as I have no knowledge of his current whereabouts?
I have since written directly to the President of the council and made clear my findings as well as all the details above, however I have still to wait for a response and acknowledgement by the President. I guess I will be waiting a long time?
I can only advise to all those people considering the possibility of coming here to Dubai to do business of any kind, BE AWARE BE VERY AWARE. You will get NO HELP or assistance if matters do not go well and if anything you will get sideswiped to allow the friends and friends of their families to be given leeway for all matters irrespective of what the truth may be.
The leaders here have not cared to listen the Firmans of our Imam, even when they have been in his presence and have had clear guidance. In Dubai its do what we say and not as we do?
I have lost Half a million US dollars in the deal which I still have yet to figure out why my partner did what he did when there was good future business? I guess greed has no known boundaries.
KINDLY PLEASE PASS THIS ON AND ALLOW OTHERS TO SEE AND KNOW WHAT THE DEAL IN DUBAI REALLY IS?
THIS IS MY STORY AND I AM NOT STANDING HERE QUIETLY TO ALLOW TO BE WALKED OVER LIKE THIS.
Hanif