Dubai police have arrested and plan to repatriate a Britisher wanted in Denmark for fraud of around a $1.7bn tax scheme, one of the largest-ever fraud cases.
The detention of Sanjay Shah, aged 52, a hedge fund trader, came after Danish officials signed a pact in March enabling extradition between the Denmark and UAE.
Dubai Police has confirmed his arrest through a tweet on Friday, 3 June, in which it stated that the goal was to extradite Shah for prosecution in Denmark.
Dubai police Brigadier General Jamal al-Jallaf said in a statement that the emirate got an international arrest warrant from Denmark for Shah, who is charged with a fraud of witnessing foreign businesses pretend to hold shares in Danish companies and claiming tax refunds for which they were not entitled.
Al-Jallaf said, “The fraud scheme, also known as ‘cum-ex’ trading, consisted submitting several of applications to the Danish Treasury on behalf of companies and investors from many nations around the world in order to get dividend tax refunds.”
The officials of Denmark said the scheme ran for some three years starting in 2012.
Shah has always been always been pretending to be innocent in interviews with journalists while residing in Dubai in the past few years but has never appeared in his home country, Denmark, to answer the accusations. It was not clear yet if he had a local lawyer in the Emirates.
A court date has not been immediately set in Dubai, and prosecutors have also not responded to a request for comment on 3 June.
In a joint statement given by Denmark’s justice and foreign ministries commended Dubai’s arrest of Shah, who was described as a target of the country’s prosecutors since 2015.
Shah is one of many accused in the tax scheme sought by Danish authorities.