Dubai targets financial crimes

May 19, 2013

Dubai_financial_crimes

Dubai, May 19: Financial crime that was detected in Dubai topped Dh200 million during last year and the first quarter of this year, according to Dubai Police’s General Department of Anti-Economic crime.

Department Director Major Salah Bu Osaiba said the police had arrested 371 suspects for involvement in those crimes — which relate to selling thousands of fake electronics and counterfeit products, using forged credit cards and money multiplication — with 130 cases coming in the first quarter of this year alone.

The General Department of Criminal Investigation Director Brigadier Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri said the economic department was providing protection to trademark owners who chose Dubai to be their regional hub, while the police were exerting tireless efforts to help companies which were harmed by the sale of counterfeit products. Damage came in terms of lost sales and damaged company reputations, he said.

Al Mansouri said Dubai’s reputation as a business hub attracted fraudsters interested in violating intellectual property rights, who had advanced technology which could produce high quality counterfeit products or defraud people through forged credit cards.

The police were trained to differentiate between fake and genuine products, he said. Despite the numbers, the figures actually represented a reduction in economic crimes, with money multiplication scams and counterfeit crime both down.

The police had recorded 130 economic crimes during the first quarter of the year, compared with 140 for the same period the previous year, with Al Mansouri attributing that to a decrease in the number of criminals plying their trade here, including a smaller number of sources importing fake products.

Popular counterfeit products, not surprisingly, include the iconic Apple technology devices, many of which had been found in the Naif area, he said.

Al Mansouri revealed the Anti-Economic Crime Department had arrested three Nigerians and three Indians, while the police were chasing a fourth African, on charges of possession of forged credit cards. The police received information that the suspects had purchased electronic appliances from a shop in Al Khaleej Al Tijari area, using forged credit cards.

The Indian owner of the electronic shop told the police that in February, two Africans and an Indian had wanted to purchase phones worth Dh71,540 using two forged credit cards. However, he said he could not deliver the goods as the men wanted such large quantities of material that the shop needed time to get the products. On the same day, the shop received an e-mail from the bank notifying staff that the two cards were forged.

A salesman at the same shop told the police that was not the first time the men had visited the store, with one of the Indian men calling the salesman in January, telling him there was a client who wanted to buy goods with credit cards. The next day the man came with an associate to the shop with the pair requesting iPhones and Samsung phones worth Dh53,000, which they purchased. The salesman told the police that he had not received any notification from the bank at the time.

The police set a trap to arrest the suspects when they returned to the store to collect the phones worth Dh71,540 they had previously purchased. Other suspects were arrested in other areas of Dubai, many of them fiercely resisting arrest before attributing the forged credit cards to other suspects among the group. One suspect confessed to owning the forged credit cards, but said he had received them from other people and was only to receive five per cent of the total profit.

During raids on the various flats of the suspects, the police seized seven forged credit cards.

Conterfeit goods

The Anti-Economic Crime Department has arrested the manager of a company for selling counterfeit products, in the Naif area.

Police officials received information that a company, located near Maktoum Hospital which had warehouses in Al Qusais area, was selling fake Philips and Osram products. The products were stored in warehouses, in violation of trademark laws which harmed accredited agencies in the country.

After verifying the tip-off, the police got permission from the Public Prosecution and raided the shops and warehouses of the company. The company manager was taken by the police for interrogation, where he confessed that he owned the products. The police sent a sample to their forensic laboratory to confirm the products were fake, while the manager was released on bail. The products in contention are being held by the police.

In a second case, the police arrested a Chinese national and two Bangladeshi nationals after receiving information that a company located in the Naif area, opposite Hyatt Regency hotel, was selling fake Apple products including iPhones and accessories. After verifying information, the police took legal action and raided the company. This started a string of accusations that the fake goods had come from another company. The police set up a trap with a representative from another company in January, and told him they wanted to buy 500 phones, coming to the value of Dh123,000 — giving a down payment of Dh2,000. An invoice was issued, and a time for the delivery of the phones was specified. The police then raided the shop and arrested several more suspects, who in turn pointed the finger at a company called Momo International Electronics, based in Naif. The police then raided this company, where they seized 108 iPhones which were lying unpacked, without their cartons, alongside 1,100 empty cartons. The suspect told the police that the company was close to a flat, which was then also raided leading to the seizure of another 340 iPhones. The police have sent a number of the seized goods to the police forensic laboratory to verify whether the goods were counterfeit.

The General Department of Criminal Investigation Director Brigadier Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri said the economic department was providing protection to trademark owners who chose Dubai to be their regional hub, while the police were exerting tireless efforts to help companies which were harmed by the sale of counterfeit products. Damage came in terms of lost sales and damaged company reputations, he said.

Al Mansouri said Dubai’s reputation as a business hub attracted fraudsters interested in violating intellectual property rights, who had advanced technology which could produce high quality counterfeit products or defraud people through forged credit cards.

The police were trained to differentiate between fake and genuine products, he said. Despite the numbers, the figures actually represented a reduction in economic crimes, with money multiplication scams and counterfeit crime both down.

The police had recorded 130 economic crimes during the first quarter of the year, compared with 140 for the same period the previous year, with Al Mansouri attributing that to a decrease in the number of criminals plying their trade here, including a smaller number of sources importing fake products.

Popular counterfeit products, not surprisingly, include the iconic Apple technology devices, many of which had been found in the Naif area, he said.

Al Mansouri revealed the Anti-Economic Crime Department had arrested three Nigerians and three Indians, while the police were chasing a fourth African, on charges of possession of forged credit cards. The police received information that the suspects had purchased electronic appliances from a shop in Al Khaleej Al Tijari area, using forged credit cards.

The Indian owner of the electronic shop told the police that in February, two Africans and an Indian had wanted to purchase phones worth Dh71,540 using two forged credit cards. However, he said he could not deliver the goods as the men wanted such large quantities of material that the shop needed time to get the products. On the same day, the shop received an e-mail from the bank notifying staff that the two cards were forged.

A salesman at the same shop told the police that was not the first time the men had visited the store, with one of the Indian men calling the salesman in January, telling him there was a client who wanted to buy goods with credit cards. The next day the man came with an associate to the shop with the pair requesting iPhones and Samsung phones worth Dh53,000, which they purchased. The salesman told the police that he had not received any notification from the bank at the time.

The police set a trap to arrest the suspects when they returned to the store to collect the phones worth Dh71,540 they had previously purchased. Other suspects were arrested in other areas of Dubai, many of them fiercely resisting arrest before attributing the forged credit cards to other suspects among the group. One suspect confessed to owning the forged credit cards, but said he had received them from other people and was only to receive five per cent of the total profit.

During raids on the various flats of the suspects, the police seized seven forged credit cards.

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News Network
March 28,2025

qudsday.jpg

Millions of people across Iran and the world took to the streets on International Quds Day, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and head of the Intifada Committee in Tehran, stated that rallies began at 10:00 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) in over 900 cities across Iran.

Demonstrators from various walks of life carried Iranian and Palestinian flags, as well as banners reading “Free Palestine” and “Al-Quds Must Be Liberated.” Flags of regional resistance groups, including Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd al-Sha'abi), Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Ansarullah, were also displayed.

Mass rallies were held across West Asia, including in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, as well as in other parts of the world.

Iranian Leaders Condemn Western Stance

Senior Iranian officials participated in the rally in Tehran, where Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf addressed the gathering.

“Iranians have taken to the streets in a massive show of support for Palestine and the Islamic Ummah,” Qalibaf said. “The Palestinian struggle is not just an issue for the Islamic world but a lesson for all of humanity.”

He criticized the West’s response to Israeli actions in Gaza, calling it a stain on Western civilization. “These crimes will be remembered as a lasting ignominy, exposing the West’s duplicity in human rights advocacy,” he added.

Qalibaf also defended the October 7, 2023, Palestinian attack on Israeli-occupied territories, describing Operation al-Aqsa Flood as a “rightful and legitimate response to 77 years of oppression by Israel, the U.S., and Britain.” He further described Israel as a “spare regime” dependent on U.S. support.

Quds Day: A Global Symbol of Resistance

Al-Quds Day, observed annually on the last Friday of Ramadan, was established in 1979 by the late Imam Khomeini to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians and oppose Israeli occupation. The event has since become a symbol of resistance, with large rallies held worldwide, particularly amid Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

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News Network
March 20,2025

gazamassacre.jpg

Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s renewed savagery has led to the massacre of at least 970 people in 48 hours.

The wave of deadly airstrikes that shattered a fragile ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday has so far claimed the lives of at least 970 people across the besieged territory, the health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Before the resumption of the offensive, the death toll from the regime’s 15 months of genocidal war recorded by the ministry at midday on March 17 stood at 48,577.

By midday on Wednesday, the figure had risen to 49,547, the ministry said.

The health ministry also registered "one death and five severe injuries among foreign staff working for UN institutions.”

It said Israel attacked a UN headquarters in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.

The victims had been taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the health ministry said.

Israel's military denied attacking a UN building in Gaza.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) confirmed the death of one of its staff by an explosive that was "dropped or fired" on its building in Deir el-Balah.

"An explosive ordnance was dropped or fired at the infrastructure and detonated inside the building,” it said, adding that five others were injured.

UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said he was "shocked and devastated" by the death of a staff member.

“This was not an accident.”  he said, adding that "attacks against humanitarian premises are a breach of international law."

Bulgaria's foreign ministry said later in the day that one of its citizens working for the United Nations was killed in Gaza, without specifying where in the territory.

Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel threatened on Tuesday that the massacre of women and children in Gaza was “only the beginning.” He stands accused of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

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Agencies
March 24,2025

gazacrisis.jpg

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that the tight Israeli blockade on the entry of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip is pushing the coastal territory closer to an acute hunger crisis.

Philippe Lazzarini made the remarks in a social media post, in which he noted that the siege, which is preventing food, medicines, water and fuel from entering the region, has lasted longer than what was in place in the first phase of the war.

Israel has banned the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 4, following the expiry of the first phase of a ceasefire and an agreement with Hamas resistance movement on the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners.

Lazzarini warned that Gaza’s population depends on imports via Israeli-occupied territories for their survival.

“Every day that passes without the entry of aid means more children go to bed hungry, diseases spread & deprivation deepens,” he said.

“Every day without food inches Gaza closer to an acute hunger crisis,” the UNRWA chief noted.

Lazzarini described the banning of aid as a collective punishment on Gaza’s population – the vast majority of which are children, women and ordinary men.

He called for the siege to be lifted and for humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to be brought into Gaza “uninterrupted and at scale.”

Backed by the United States and its Western allies, Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the Israeli regime in response to its decades-long campaign of oppression against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 50,021 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 113,274 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

On November 21 last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its deadly war on the blockaded coastal sliver.

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