Dubai's Number One Scammer: Shahram Abdullah Zadeh

source A 9 Stars Dubai Reader

In a city of soaring towers and luxury sports cars, Shahram Abdullah Zadeh wanted it all at any cost.

In roughly two years, the Dubai-born Zadeh conned his way from brokering meager real estate deals for Iranian immigrants to running an elite development firm in the fastest growing city in the world. The epitome of a con man, he is the poster boy for the thievery that descended upon Dubai during its unprecedented property boom.
Zadeh’s story, like many others, is a cautionary one that underscores the perils of rapid growth in developing economies. It is the tale of a Machiavellian businessman from an immigrant family who would stop at nothing to reach the top.

It was only a year ago, when the first paragraph in a high-profile Wall Street Journal story about Zadeh read: “Amid the movers and shakers of this glittering city, Shahram Abdullah Zadeh cut a wide swathe. He cruised around town in a white Bentley and dined with royalty as his company developed one of the emirate's premier office complexes.”

This was the portrait that Zadeh painted for the world. It was a disguise that permitted him to manipulate investors, investigators, and the media, as well as ruin reputations and steal millions of dollars.

His real biography, as shown by official documents and interviews with those who knew him from a young age, portrays a man who dreamed of a rags-to-riches transformation at any cost.

Zadeh was born in Dubai to Iranian immigrant parents in 1971. His father ran a small two-star hotel for Iranian businessmen called the Tara Hotel.

In one interview, Zadeh spoke of his parents’ vast real estate holdings and his costly education. The Wall Street Journal wrote: “Mr. Zadeh grew up in Dubai, attending school with the children of some of the city's top families.”
In fact, he attended secondary school at the Cambridge School in Rashidiya, which during the 1980s was by no means a place where top families sent their children.
Zadeh’s lies about his secondary school were only a minor detail in the fantastic, imaginary back story he concocted for himself. To many in Dubai’s elite, he described himself as Dr. Zadeh, the psychologist. This background, he said, provided him with a better understanding of those he was involved with in real estate deals. When he was hired at Al Fajer Properties to lead the company, he advertised far and wide that he had a PhD in finance, a degree that qualified him for the high-powered position.

Though Zadeh never lied about where he we went to University -- the Czech Republic -- he exaggerated his achievements. Zadeh studied general medicine at Masaryk University, graduating from the school’s Faculty of Medicine in 1999. He is not noted in the Czech Medical Chamber, which is a prerequisite for medical practice in the Czech Republic, or in Dubai. He did not study psychology or business, records at Masaryk University show.

Zadeh moved back to Dubai from the Czech Republic and in 2002 began working as a real estate agent within Dubai’s Iranian community. With his manic quest to gain recognition, he made money for those that mattered in an economy where any purchase of real estate would yield high returns in a matter of months. In 2003, Zadeh was introduced to Sheikh Hasher bin Juma'a Al Maktoum, the brother-in-law of Dubai’s ruler.

Sheikh Hasher bin Juma'a Al Maktoum, a member of the Royal family of Dubai and a man known for his old-fashioned values -- trust and commitment — was tricked by Zadeh’s tales of grandeur and hired him to run his development company, Al Fajer Properties, which is an arm of the Sheikh’s construction company.

With the real estate sector booming, there was little need to monitor Zadeh. The company appeared to be making money and towers were under construction. But in early 2008 an employee inadvertently pointed out to Sheik Hasher bin Juma'a Al Maktoum that the company’s cash situation was dire and Sheikh Hasher's son, Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher al Maktoum, began an audit of the company, according to Forbes magazine.
His investigation soon discovered that Zadeh had funneled hundreds of millions of dollars out of Al Fajer, pocketing over $100 million for himself. The scam was simple: Zadeh would purchase real estate using Al Fajer funds and then sell it to private clients through one of his several shell companies, IBC Ltd FZCo and Diamond Steel FZCo. The method allowed him to to skim millions of dollars in profits that belonged to the company. He would then put the money he took out of the company back in as personal equity, making it look as though he were investing in the business.
Zadeh was jailed as accountants from Al Fajer put together the pieces of what was an obvious fraud committed against the company. But as government investigators were delayed as they tried to untangle Zadeh’s murky web of transactions and shell companies, they were forced to release him. His passport was confiscated and the courts ruled that he was banned from leaving the country until the investigation was finalized.

With his back against the wall, Zadeh’s churned out a plan of action. His strategy was to pressure Dubai’s legal system by spreading lies through the media and the Internet. He would then use the momentum to sue Al Fajer for $1.9 billion. Since he had never a signed an agreement with the Sheikh, which is common practice for older Arab businessmen, he could argue that the two had made an agreement favoring Zadeh. He would accuse the Sheikh of hiding it. He put together some affidavits and went to the courts. No one ever accused Zadeh of having small aspirations.

Western press outlets bought his story. Zadeh, the middle-class son of Iranian immigrants who was born and raised in Dubai, was referred to by The Wall Street Journal as an “elite expatriate.” Forbes printed quotes from Zadeh in which he alleged that he was “the sole investor in Al Fajer.” “Sheik Hasher Maktoum has not invested a single dirham into the company,” he said to Forbes.

Simple due diligence would have uncovered that Zadeh did not come from a wealthy family and that his resume was packed with fabrications and exaggerations. How could Zadeh, as The Wall Street Journal reported, have “managed his family's hotel and retail holdings and decided to go into business himself in 2000,” and then, only a few years later, obtain a job as the CEO of a major developer with such little experience? How could this same man, without personal wealth and with virtually no track record in Dubai’s business world, invest $30 million of his own money into Al Fajer (As he alleged to a Forbes reporter)?

These stories and others helped to fuel Zadeh’s devious plan. But it would not stop there.

Zadeh convinced a contact still working at Al Fajer, an assistant sales administration manager named Mohammed Salloum, to e-mail him a list of investors involved in an Al Fajer development called the Ebony and Ivory Towers. Though Salloum is now wanted by police for disseminating this list, he continues to work illegally in Dubai.

With the investor list, Zadeh orchestrated a public relations nightmare for Al Fajer. He rallied investors against Al Fajer, setting up group Web sites and enlisting overleveraged investors in Dubai real estate to be the face of his operation. These included men like Moses Oye and Imran Karim, who could no longer afford their purchases of entire floors of buildings now that the market had slowed down. A closer look at their past would have found details like Karim's felony conviction for tax evasion in the UK.

Zadeh also fed information to Ingerborg Meyer, a German woman who runs an anti-Dubai blog, called 7 Stars Dubai. He then paid her to make posts on Web forums so that his campaign against the company that he stole millions of dollars from would spread virally.
But of all of Zadeh’s posturing, the most devious move in his scheme involved a pawn named Leigh Jones, a British national and a former secretary at Al Fajer Properties.
After Zadeh was removed from Al Fajer, Jones remained in her position at the company. Unbeknownst to the new management, she and Zadeh were former lovers, and Zadeh was paying for her to live in a luxury apartment in one of Dubai’s richest neighborhoods, Downtown Burj Dubai.

Jones worked as an operative for Zadeh, deleting company files—which were later uncovered by computer forensics investigators—and making paper files disappear.
During the time that Jones schemed for Zadeh, it became obvious to the mastermind that she could serve a grander purpose. Zadeh proposed that Jones leave Dubai and provide supporting evidence for his court case against Al Fajer in the form of affidavits, which she later submitted from London. With Jones outside of Dubai, it would be impossible for investigators to interrogate her regarding the claims. Though Jones had already told investigators in Dubai that she didn’t have knowledge of the inner-workings of the company, she would later say she lied in fear of the Sheikh. As part of their deal, Zadeh would provide Jones with financial compensation.

Jones left Dubai with her boyfriend, Bernard Gabriel, a Lebanese national who had worked at Ski Dubai. The two moved to Gabriel’s hometown in the shadows of Mt. Lebanon and married. Zadeh provided them with the funds to buy a massive farm, where the two now breed German Shepherds.

Gabriel used part of the pay-off money to launch a business in which he imports cars illegally from the United States and sells them in Lebanon’s black market. Jones runs the dog farm and drives around the mountains of Lebanon in a new Hummer SUV. These two scammers, who earned meager wages in Dubai, are now managing lucrative enterprises thanks to start-up funds from Shahram Abdullah Zadeh.

But despite all of Zadeh’s scheming, his plans have begun unraveling. Leigh Jones has again changed her story, this time turning on Zadeh, and is now cooperating with investigators in Dubai. Auditors have now had ample time to review Al Fajer’s financial documents. They have gathered evidence proving that he illegally funneled money out of the company and he is now officially wanted on criminal charges in Dubai. The case has been bolstered by other victims, mostly Iranians, coming forward with allegations of fraud against Zadeh. One investor claims he was bilked of more than $400 million by Zadeh. Complaints have been filed with Interpol by numerous investors in Iran.

Now, as the walls close in on Zadeh, he roams the world looking for accessories to his scam. Though his Iranian passport was confiscated, he sneaked out of the United Arab Emirates with a Czech Republic passport, despite the fact that Czech laws prohibits wanted criminals from obtaining them. With the money he stole, he has crisscrossed the United States, meeting with lawyers and telling them his lies. He continues to try and use the West’s biases towards the Middle East to aid in his cause.

Though Zadeh remains free, it will not last forever. As evidence of his crimes mount, it will become clear to people around the world that this sociopath is not the upstanding businessman he claims to be, but rather a wicked con man out to steal money and destroy reputations at any cost. At the moment, Zadeh is working on a property deal in the Czech Republic. It is only a matter of time before the investors realize the criminal mind they are dealing with.

Hopefully, they will not face the same painful fate of others that have involved themselves with Shahram Abdullah Zadeh.