British Financier Ordered by UAE High Court to Repay $1.7 Billion Bilked in Tax Fraud

The United Arab Emirates' highest court Tuesday ordered a British hedge fund trader convicted of orchestrating a $1.7 billion tax fraud to pay that amount to Denmark's tax authority, the Associated Press reported. Financier Sanjay Shah was convicted in a lower court of masterminding a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2015. Under it, foreign businesses pretended to own shares in Danish companies and claimed tax refunds for which they were not eligible. He was arrested in Dubai last year. The Court of Cassation also ordered Shah and several foreign businesses implicated in the scheme to pay 5% interest on the $1.7 billion accrued from when the case was first filed in August 2018. “This conclusive ruling after a nearly five-year pursuit of justice underscores the serious and uncompromising stance of the UAE authorities against financial misconduct,” said OGH Legal in Dubai, a law firm acting on behalf of Danish authorities, in a statement. Last September, the Dubai Appeals Court found Shah and his accomplices guilty of illegally extracting money from Danish tax authorities. His lawyers appealed that verdict to the Court of Cassation, which upheld the earlier ruling Tuesday and ordered Shah to pay the $1.7 billion. Read more.