DUBAI // Three men posed as Dubai policemen to gain entry into a woman’s home before stealing almost Dh80,000 in cash, as well as mobile phones and jewellery, and threatening to kill her, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said that on June 15 this year Palestinians A J, 22, and M M, 19, and Jordanian S S, 19, called at the home of G A, a 32-year-old Uzbek who lived in Al Nahda.
“I asked who was it, and one said ‘police’, so I looked through the peep hole and saw a man raising an ID. I opened up only to see three men, two of whom were carrying swords,” G A said. “One placed the sword to my neck and ordered me to sit on the floor before they asked me where my money was. When I said I had no money, one of them struck me with the sword on my shoulder.”
The men searched her flat for almost five hours before fleeing with more than Dh78,000 in cash, mobile phones, an iPad and jewellery.
“Dh55,000 of the cash stolen was for a friend of mine who gave it to me to rent her a flat,” G A said, adding that after the men had taken the money one of them kicked her in the head.
The court heard that during the robbery the defendants ate and smoked as they took turns watching G A.
“One asked to have sex with me but I cried and then he took my phone number,” said G A, who called police less than an hour after the men left.
Two were arrested the following morning after being tracked down at a hotel in Ajman. The third defendant was found after officers were given his contact information by the other defendants.
The men confessed that M M had picked up the woman’s address from a massage website, police officer S A, 39, told the court.
“They said that most of the women working in massage centres are prostitutes and fear calling the police if they are robbed,” the officer said. “They also said that they called her and agreed to go and have sex with her for Dh300 from each one, so she gave them the address to her flat.”
All three men denied robbery, issuing threats to kill, and trespassing while S S denied impersonating a police officer and A J and M M denied aiding and abetting the Jordanian.
The next hearing will be on October 14.
salamir@thenational.ae
Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
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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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')