Gang from Americas accused of Jumeirah home robberies

DUBAI // A four-member gang made up of an American, Mexican and two Colombians is accused of targeting vacant houses and robbing them.

Dubai Criminal Court was told that American R J, Colombian D P and Mexicans M A and M O, all 32, were robbing houses in Jumeirah in July.

Prosecutors said they broke into one empty villa and stole jewellery, a number of diamond sets and other valuables worth Dh1.5 million.

The four are facing charges of armed robbery, trespassing and damaging property, while M A alone was also charged with aiding and abetting.

M O, however, faces multiple additional charges including forging an Abu Dhabi Airport stamp on a Spanish passport, which he was allegedly intending to use to flee the country. He is also charged with forging the passport by adding a false stamp and by falsifying its personal data page.

M O is also charged with damaging a police patrol car and endangering the life of a police captain by running him over with his car.

All four were not present in court to enter pleas against the charges.

The 36-year-old villa owner, T A, from India, told prosecutors that he left the country on July 1 for a one-week visit to his homeland and, upon his return, he saw the lock to his door was broken.

“The kitchen window was smashed, all things inside were a mess and the bedroom was upside down,” he said. “I checked the safe and found it had been forced open and all the valuable items inside it stolen.”

He called police and two days later he was called into a station where he was shown the jewellery that was stolen from his house.

Police captain A A, 33, testified that the defendants were tracked down through the rental car they drove to the villa.

“We found them living in a flat in Sharjah. During the raid, two were at the flat while the third came in the middle of it, driving a rented Range Rover,” said the captain.

He added that the driver crashed into a police car and tried to run over a police captain.

A A said the defendant fled on foot but was arrested.

“The fourth gang member was arrested the next day, on July 9, as he tried to exit the country,” added the captain.

Details of other home robberies committed by the gang were not revealed by prosecutors.

The next hearing is on October 22.

salamir@thenational.ae

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Name: HyperSpace

Started: 2020

Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Entertainment

Number of staff: 210

Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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The biog

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Age: 59

From: Laguna, The Philippines

Favourite dish: Seabass or Fish and Chips

Hobbies: When he’s not in the restaurant, he still likes to cook, along with walking and meeting up with friends.

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