Indian Multi-Firm Businessman in Dubai Loses AED 1.8 Million to Vanishing Companies
This enterprising individual who thought business was booming was in for huge shock.
Dubai, UAE, June 27th, 2024: Dubai may be the ultimate place for business. But it also seems to be the ideal city for scammers. Just ask poor Mr. Mirza Ilias Baig, an Indian expat, who has just seen 1.8 million dhirams (or USD 490,000) slip through his fingers. This humongous fraud occurred across all three of Baig’s once-thriving firms by a handful of client companies that have disappeared without a trace.
So what were the scamsters’ modus operandi? They would submit post-dated cheques on order and reception of goods which went on to bounce. The illegally-acquired items are then typically sold in black at lower prices.The poor victim of this nefarious scheme - Mr. Baig - is now left scratching his head as he wonders how to track the robbers and bring them to book. Which are the organisations that comprise Baig’s errant clientele? These spectre establishments went by the following names: 1) Digital Genius Technologies, 2) Daemo International, 3) Noor Al Sidra Trading, 4) Fair Words Goods Training, and 5) Wahat Al Rayan Training.
Following are the amounts that each of Baig’s multi-sector businesses were swindled of:
1) The computer, TV and hard-disk supplier Iveond Consultancy (AED 958,950)
2) The international flight and hotel booking agency IRA Travel and Tourism (AED 648,000)
3) The onion and sanitary-ware distributor IRA General Trading and Foodstuff (AED 200,315)
The bogus cheques issued by the fraudsters came within a fortnight, with a credit period of one month to 6 weeks. The customers even handed Baig a security cheque of AED 200,000, which turned out to be part of their trickster strategy. Digital Genius made off with the largest amount by getting numerous hotel and flight bookings along with purchases of 20 projectors, 30 MacBooks, 40 digital cameras, 40 Samsung screens, 100 tablets, 100 routers and 200 AirPods.
One cheque of AED 92,979 in value has been redeemed, but this is a minor consolation for the “devastated” Mr. Baig, who doesn’t know how he is going to “recover (his) losses”. In the past couple of months, there have been other such Dubai-based disappearing wheeler-dealers – like Blue Chip that scammed clients out of around AED 270 million and Max Clove Technologies that shut shop and made off with AED 40 million. It looks like it’s high time safe-guards be put in place and victim businessmen like “Baig” are not reduced to “Beg”.
