Dubai's Public Prosecution indicted Wednesday a former minister of state and several others including former company executives as a year-long probe into alleged corruption at one of the city's biggest property developers draws to a close.
Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, former government minister for finance and industry, and ex-chairman of Dubai Islamic Bank, faces charges of alleged embezzlement and "harming state interests", according to an emailed statement from the prosecutor's office.
Kharbash is alleged to have seized "public money and harmed the state's interests" in relation to an investigation into financial wrongdoing at Deyaar Development, according to the statement.
The prosecution has also accused Kharbash of aiding Zack Shahin, former chief executive of property company Deyaar, to allegedly take company money. Kharbash was also chairman of Deyaar before resigning early last year.
Kharbash declined to comment when called.
Shahin, who has been held by Dubai police for over a year, has also been charged with "seizing company money" and bribery, according to the statement. His attorney was unavailable for comment.
Prosecutors are deciding when the case, which has now been referred, will be heard in court, according to the statement from the office of Dubai's attorney general Essam al-Humaidan.
The Deyaar investigation, first reported last April exclusively by Zawya Dow Jones, has triggered the biggest crackdown on alleged corporate corruption seen in the Persian Gulf boom town.
Kharbash is the highest profile official to so far be linked with one of the city's investigation's into alleged corporate crime.
Prosecutors have been empowered in their purge to clean up the city by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, whose office issued a statement in August saying "there will be no tolerance shown to anybody who tries to exploit his position to make illegal profits."
The prosecutor's statement says that 14 people have been accused of alleged wrongdoing in three cases that have arisen from the original Deyaar investigation.
The second case mentioned, also referred to Dubai Criminal Court, concerns alleged bribery involving two United Arab Emirates nationals, including former Deyaar board member and Dubai Islamic Bank chief executive Saad Abdulrazzak who is currently being held by police, the prosecution statement says.
"We trust the UAE's judiciary and we are confident of our client's innocence," said Abdulrazzak's attorney Habib al-Mulla, in a phone interview with Zawya Dow Jones. "Saad Abdulrazak has committed no wrongdoing. We are confident we will be able to prove his innocence before the court of law."
According to the prosecution's statement, the second case to emerge from the original Deyaar investigation involves betrayal of trust, bribery and forgery, and has been referred to the Dubai Misdemeanors Court.
The investigations took several months "due to the multiplicity of facts and the large number of people accused, and has unveiled the facts of several financial corruption incidents in which the accused have been involved in, with sums involved reaching tens of millions", the statement said.