Arif Naqvi stole $385m from Abraaj, liquidators say

Naqvi is one of six former Abraaj executives who face charges stemming from private equity firm’s 2018 collapse

The alleged theft by Arif Naqvi, the founder of the collapsed equity firm, the Abraaj Group, to have cost the firm $385 million, significantly more than what the prosecutors had previously claimed, according to the liquidators overseeing the company’s insolvency.

Naqvi, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Abraaj, is one of the firm’s six former executives, who are facing charges, stemming from the private equity’s firm’s 2018 collapse, a UAE-based newspaper reported on Saturday.

In court papers last year, US prosecutors said Naqvi stole more than $250 million. But in a new filing on Friday, the liquidators put the losses at $385 million from 2009 to 2018 as he moved money for his own use in more than 3,700 transactions.

The newspaper said that the liquidators were at work to trace transactions and had asked a New York judge for permission to file subpoenas on 18 banks. The information would be used in a planned lawsuit in Cayman Islands seeking to recover funds to pay the firm’s investors and creditors.

Abraaj founder released from custody after $19m bail payment

Abraaj managed more than 40 private equity funds and assets of more than $14 billion until it crumbled in the biggest failure for a private equity firm. Dubai’s financial regulator has fined Abraaj $315 million for deceiving investors and misappropriating their funds.

Another executive, Mustafa Abdel Wadood, a former managing partner, was arrested while on a college-shopping trip to the US with his wife and son. He pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing in September. Other defendants charged in New York are outside US custody.

Abraaj, which was founded in 2002, was the Middle East’s biggest private equity fund and one of the world’s most influential emerging-market investors, with stakes in healthcare, clean energy, lending and real estate across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Turkey.

The article originally published in The National