US ex-CEO jailed 15 years in UAE for 'fraud'

Zack Shahin, a former CEO of Emirati property firm Deyaar who has been in detention for more than eight years, was sentenced Sunday along with two others over a 56.3-million-dirham ($15.3-million) fraud.

A Dubai court has sentenced an American-Lebanese businessman to 15 years in prison over fraud and misuse of power in a property deal, local media reported Monday.

Zack Shahin, a former CEO of Emirati property firm Deyaar who has been in detention for more than eight years, was sentenced Sunday along with two others over a 56.3-million-dirham ($15.3-million) fraud, Khaleej Times reported.

The prosecution said Shahin, 51, had "misused his power as CEO of Deyaar back in November 2007 and committed irregularities and fraud", the paper said.

He was accused of submitting a misleading feasibility study to the company's board for the purchase of a plot of land in the United States, causing Deyaar to lose the $15 million, the paper said. The two other defendants, both Americans working for a private US realty firm, were also sentenced to 15 years in jail each but local media said

they remain at large.

The court, which could not be contacted on Monday, acquitted five other Deyaar staff of complicity. Several fraud cases surfaced in the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis that hit Dubai's economy.