Former DP World manager handed prison sentence and Dhs5m fine

A former manager at Dubai ports operator DP World has reportedly been sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of nearly Dhs5m ($1.36m) for helping companies win contracts in exchange for bribes.

The National reports that the 29-year-old Emirati was convicted of seeking bribes last November and has now been ordered to see out the sentence by Dubai Court of appeal.

She was accused of demanding a Dhs4.35m payment from a Jordanian manager of one construction company and Dhs500,000 ($136,125) from an Egyptian manager of another to help them secure contacts at Jebel Ali Court and a villa building in Jumeirah Heights respectively.

The two were jailed for a year and fined the respective sums they were offering as a bribe.

A third man, a Lebanese national, was sentenced to three months in prison for aiding the Emirati in the scheme, while a Syrian woman was pardoned from her one-year sentence for money laundering after becoming a whistleblower to convict the other defendants.

The publication said the crimes occurred between 2012 and 2014 and were reported by the Syrian employee after she did not receive her full share of the proceeds.

“After she helped the two companies enter the bids with DP World, she asked me to contact the managers of the companies and ask each to wire her Dh500,000,” the Syrian woman was quoted as saying.

She later went to authorities and wore a recording wire to gather evidence against the other suspects.

The bribe payments were made to the Lebanese man’s engineering consulting company under separate contracts stating if the firms won their bids they would pay a percentage of the contract.

The Syrian woman said she was unaware of how the former DP World manager helped the companies win the bids as they were not registered contractors with the ports operator.

She said the Emirati told each company the price they should list in their tender.

When they won, the consulting company received more than Dhs2m ($544,500) and the Emirati received her share in instalments, sometimes in cash, the Syrian woman said.

The Syrian woman approached authorities when she only received Dhs175,000 ($47,643) and was never paid the remaining Dhs550,000 ($149,737) she said she was owed.