Sanjay Shah, a hedge-fund trader accused of masterminding a $1.9 billion tax fraud, is set to be extradited from Dubai to Denmark to face criminal charges after losing a long battle to stay in the emirate.
(Bloomberg) — Sanjay Shah, a hedge-fund trader accused of masterminding a $1.9 billion tax fraud, is set to be extradited from Dubai to Denmark to face criminal charges after losing a long battle to stay in the emirate.
A Dubai court rejected an appeal by Shah in a judgment on Monday, which now needs to be submitted to the United Arab Emirates’ justice minister for a final approval, according to Danish authorities.
“We are now a step closer to having the suspect in the dividend tax case come to Denmark and stand before a Danish court,” Peter Hummelgaard, the nation’s justice minister, said in a statement. “It shouldn’t pay for suspects to try and hide in other countries.”
Danish prosecutors have alleged that Shah oversaw the Cum-Ex trading scam involving a global network of bankers, lawyers and agents who earned vast sums of money from Denmark’s tax authority by using a loophole on dividend payouts to reap duplicate tax refunds. Shah, who was arrested last June, has consistently maintained his innocence.
The ruling is a further blow to the trader who’s been knocked back in a series of legal defeats recently. Shah says he took advantage of tax laws that seemed to allow investors to claim refunds of a tax on dividends that were paid only once. The strategies saw billions of euros siphoned off government revenue. Germany moved to abolish the practice in 2012.
Jack Irvine, Shah’s spokesperson, said in a statement that the need for the decision to be confirmed by the UAE justice minister suggests he will not be on the first plane out of Dubai.
“Mr. Shah continues to deny that the trades were illegal,” he said. “I am confident that the truth concerning SKAT’s dysfunctionality will eventually emerge.”
Denmark and the United Arab Emirates signed an extradition deal in March last year, with Shah’s handover being one of the main purposes.
Shah asked his lawyers to apply for an independent panel of Dubai judges to review the ruling, Chris Waters, a lawyer at Meaby & Co, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Waters said an application will be made to court and to Dubai’s justice ministry to stop the extradition until the review decision has been made.
–With assistance from Zainab Fattah.
(Updates with details of Shah’s application for a review of the ruling in the final paragraph)
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