Sanjay Shah.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Cassation obligated a British investor Sanjay Shah and a number of his partners to return around Dhs4.6 billion plus a five per cent interest to the Danish Customs and Tax Administration (DCTA) after being convicted of the largest tax fraud in the history of the Kingdom of Denmark in a legal battle that lasted nearly five years.

Al Omar & Al Sabah Advocates and Legal Consultancy, DCTA representative in Dubai, stated that this final verdict confirms beyond any doubt the serious and solid position of the UAE judiciary against any financial violations, noting that the a process to hand over the money already started.

According to the case, which was lodged by DCTA in Denmark in 2018 and included more than nine million documents, the British investor was the mastermind of the tax fraud.

The defendant submitted false documents showing that he and his partners owned shares in 126 Danish companies and demanded a refund of the taxes that he should not have paid between 2012 and 2015.

The verdict supported a previous verdict issued in September last year by the Dubai Court of Appeal, in which the British investor and his partners were convicted of tax fraud and ordered to pay Dhs4.643 billion with an estimated legal interest of five per cent to the DCTA.

Earlier, the Court of Appeal appointed a committee to review the case file in March 2021. The committee submitted a report that indicated the number of companies owned by the investor and his accomplices in the scheme to seize around Dhs4.6 billion illegally. The report stated that the entire amount was deposited in the accounts of those companies and that the Danish authorities were seeking in their claim to recover the amount from the defendants.

The Court of Cassation’s verdict obligates the defendants to pay Dhs4.643 billion ($1.7 billion) to the DCTA.

It is noteworthy that an order to freeze the property and assets of the British investor and the other defendants was issued in Dubai in July 2018, a month before the case was initiated.

After deliberating the case in August 2020, the Court of First Instance rejected the claim, prompting the Danish authorities to appeal it.

This ruling comes several months after the issuance of a verdict ordering the defendant to be handed over to the Danish authorities on fraud and money laundering charges.