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Justice Minister calls on Swiss to release UAE shaikh’s money

Al Daheri wrote to his Swiss counterpart Christopher Blocher, urging him and the Swiss to release the company’s assets, currently frozen in numerous banks there. Al Wafa Commercial Brokerage Company is owned by Shaikh Mohammed bin Saqr Al Qasimi. The funds were frozen on the orders of a Swiss magistrate who has run a 10 year investigation into the activities of a company called Creative Finance AG, based in Zug, Switzerland. Creative Finance was contracted by Al Wafa Commercial Brokerage Company to perform the UAE firm’s foreign currency trading.

However, Al Wafa Commercial Brokerage Company found itself caught up in a lengthy and messy criminal investigation of Creative, a number of whose executives were accused of fraud and money laundering. As part of the investigation, all of Creative’s funds were frozen: including those it was handling on behalf of Al Wafa.

The Khaleej Times has obtained a letter sent on March 19 written by Mohammed bin Nukhaira al Dhahiri, Minister of Justice to his Swiss counterpart Christopher Blocher.

Al Dhahiri told Blocher that 6,000 UAE nationals would suffer ‘grievous damages’ if the funds continued to be frozen and urged him to take action on their behalf.

Al Dahihiri indicated the UAE would be minded to offer ‘and judicial assistance’ to the Swiss if the funds were released. The Swiss court has applied to the UAE to freeze assets held in the UAE it says belong to Creative Finance and to trasfer the funds to Switzerland.

Since the case started in 1995, two people connected to Creative have been convicted of fraud, however, Swiss courts are stil hearing appeals from one of the men convicted in the case.

In the meantime, Creative crumbled into bankruptcy under the weight claims made against it by its former clients.

Last month, Peter Vogler, Switzerland’s ambassador in UAE, publicly denied via a letter to the Khaleej Times that any funds in the name of Al Wafa were frozen by the court.

But Sheikh Al Qasimi challenged that assertion, saying Al Wafa assets worth US$148 million had been frozen on the orders of the Swiss Judiciary. "In brief we stick to the story given to you, and which you have carried, and which was based on an number of evidences we have briefed on our lawyers, partners and our shareholders in the Swiss company Creative Finance AG,” Shaikh Mohammed bin Saqr said.

Shaikh Mohammed added they had ‘incontestable and unquestionable evidence’ supporting their claim and rejected the Swiss envoy’s assertions.

“We have also all the documents and evidences which prove that Peter Ordoni, the investigation judge of the Canton of Zug, Arnold Koller assistant investigation judge and auditor and Alex Stop, present Head of the Federal court and former chairman of the Supervisory Authority in Zug have committed criminal acts against Creative finance and its partner Al Wafa Brokers in handling the lawsuit field against them, and we are fully ready to provide these evidences to any body whatever it is for its perusal,” he said.

Shaikh Mohammed added he wondered whether the Swiss ambassador had verified the facts of the case himself or just made an argument based on views of those bringing the charges in Switzerland.

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