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The family of a British prisoner in Dubai has urged foreign investors including bank JPMorgan Chase and fund manager BlackRock to divest their stakes in Dubai Islamic Bank, blaming the prolonged detention of their relatives.
Ryan Cornelius, 68, was jailed in the Gulf business capital for 14 years after he was arrested in 2008 with three others, including his former business partner Charles Ridley.
all four Defrauding DIB convictedPartially owned by the Dubai government in 2011.
At the end of the 2018 sentence, at the bank’s application, Dubai judge extended detention 20 years until they settled their $430 million in so-called debt. The judge retroactively used a 2009 law that provided prison terms for non-repayment of fraudulent proceeds to government-related entities.
Cornelius was convicted of crimes that predate the 2009 law.
Cornelius’ health has deteriorated and his family has been campaigning for his release.it calls U.K. Sanctions were imposed on DIB Chairman Mohammed Al Shaibani for alleged human rights abuses, the disproportionate sentence of Cornelius and what it considers cruel treatment and arbitrary detention in prison.
Shabani is also a senior government official in the emirate.
The family said the DIB’s application for an extension of Cornelius’ sentence, as his effective jailer, could seek to overturn the sentence.
DIB said it “acted at all times as appropriate in the interests of shareholders and applicable law”.
“This controversy has been the subject of detailed scrutiny in both jurisdictions, with the unanimous conclusion of judicial proceedings in England and Dubai that the individuals were guilty of fraud,” it added.
Ryan Cornelius before his arrest in 2008 © Heather Cornelius
A group of UK MPs, including former Conservative leaders Sir Ian Duncan Smith and Stephen Kinnock, also urged the UK government to “show that in the Cornelius case” Make sure to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Detention from Iran.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded this year that Cornelius was arbitrarily detained and demanded his immediate release and compensation.
Cornelius argued that judicial means were used to force him into bankruptcy. He had been amortizing a $501 million DIB loan restructuring agreement until he was detained in 2008 and therefore defaulted. The bank foreclosed on the collateral on the loan, a polo-themed real estate development worth about $1 billion at the time. The DIB argued that the loan restructuring was illegal.
Bill Browder, a longtime Kremlin critic who lobbied for the Global Magnitsky Act, which authorizes sanctions against foreign officials identified as human rights abusers, said: A just mockery that a bank can hold an individual hostage instead of an alleged non-payment of debt, even when it appears that no money is actually owed.”
In a letter to BlackRock, Ryan Cornelius’ wife Heather noted that the fund manager had committed to “communicating with the firm on how to manage the human rights issues inherent in its business.”
“I urge you to divest your shares in DIB,” she wrote. “Use your influence as the majority shareholder of DIB to force them to do whatever is necessary to secure my husband’s release.”
Cornelius has written similar letters to other global companies identified as having some of the largest institutional stakes in the DIB. These include JPMorgan Chase, US investment manager Vanguard, UK wealth manager St James’s Place and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management.
Diplomats say it is difficult for the British government to interfere in foreign legal proceedings. The United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates have strong historical ties.
BlackRock, JPMorgan and St James’s Square declined to comment. Pioneer did not respond to a request for comment.
NBIM said it was studying the letter.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not provide a statement.
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