The latest scandal to hit global media is the holding of properties worth billions of dollars by residents of foreign states, raising questions over the provenance of the funds used to secure them.
According to the Dubai Uncovered files, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) worked with journalists in several states to highlight properties—ranging from luxurious high-end apartments to studio flats—owned by politically exposed persons, athletes, businessmen and alleged money-launderers. Per U.A.E. population data, Indians comprise its largest numbers with 3.86 million residents, followed by 1.7 million Pakistanis, 0.75 million Bengalis and 0.7 million Filipinos.
While acknowledging that it has not examined whether the funds used to secure the Dubai properties were transferred through legitimate sources, the OCCRP used the leaked data in its possession to verify the identities of people listed and confirmed their ownership status using official records, open-source research, and other leaked datasets. According to the report, Dubai property holders include Australian cocaine traffickers, relatives of West African dictators, and sanctioned Hezbollah financiers, suggesting the U.A.E. has not shied from opening its arms to unscrupulous characters. This has been facilitated by secrecy jurisdictions that allow people to hide their assets in the U.A.E. in plain sight; though the country’s embassies have stressed that it “takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously.”
To be clear, Dubai has no monopoly on “dirty money,” with similar allegations against major metropolitan centers such as New York and London. However, what favors the stashing of ill-gotten wealth in Dubai is its inconsistent responses to requests from foreign authorities for help arresting and extraditing fugitives. Even as U.A.E. authorities have increased cooperation with foreign law enforcement in recent years, it continues to apply penalties inconsistently, with India-born Gupta brothers accused of looting South Africa’s public funds a prominent example. Thus far, all political personalities from Pakistan named in Dubai Unlocked have maintained their assets are all properly declared in Pakistan and there is no question of their legality. This is little comfort in a country where the impoverished are increasingly ravaged by inflation, barely making ends meet. The data released by OCCRP suggests 17,000 Pakistani citizens possess $11 billion in properties across Dubai; for comparison, Islamabad’s total foreign exchange reserves currently stand at just $14.6 billion.