In an emphatic sign that the young and ambitious real estate brokerage firm Fidu Properties had made its mark in Dubai, the company’s logo was displayed on the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.
This honor in 2019 marks a meteoric milestone for Fidu, created just two years earlier. Its good fortune has been facilitated by a partnership with Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai’s largest property developer, which is owned in part through the Dubai leader’s investment vehicle.
A few months after opening their Dubai in 2018, Fidu and Emaar reached a $100 million deal on one of the developer’s luxury projects, The Grand at Dubai Creek Harbour, according to news reports. In 2019, developments built by Emaar accounted for at least 90% of Fidu Properties’ sales, according to Fidu press releases.
But in August last year, Su Jianfeng, a key Fidu figure, was arrested in Singapore as part of a dramatic defeat of an alleged cash-laundering ring that has since led to the seizure of more than $2. 2 billion in assets. Another 10 people with laundering illegal proceeds from online gambling and fraudulent operations across Southeast Asia. Su Jianfeng was also the subject of a Chinese arrest warrant in 2017 for illegal gambling.
Six of those arrested have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced. Su Jianfeng is in custody in Singapore awaiting trial.
Three other Americans named in the case own homes valued at more than $40 million. One of them has a deal with two men who, like Su Jianfeng, are wanted in China for illegal gambling and also own significant real estate assets in Dubai.
While the Singapore crisis has been widely publicized, those asset purchases in Dubai have so far gone unreported. When the OCCRP went into press, Su Jianfeng charged six new forgery charges, adding similar allegations to five houses in Dubai, 3 of which are in the leaked records.
In total, the newly discovered purchases involve more than 100 properties, purchased for more than $100 million in total, according to the leaked data. These are sets that cover entire floors of Grande Downtown, a luxury skyscraper opposite the Burj Khalifa, valued at at least $47 million. All purchases were made between October 2019 and October 2020.
While such “high-volume investments in real estate” are not “automatically linked to money laundering,” “they can be a red flag,” said Benedikt Hofmann, deputy representative for Southeast Asia at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Most of the homes known through the hounds were at the flagship advances of Emaar in Downtown Dubai and The Grand at Dubai Creek Harbour, either advertised and advertised through Fidu Properties. (There is no suggestion that Emaar knew about Su Jianfeng’s background or alleged cash laundering activities. )
These investments raise the question of whether Dubai’s notoriously lenient technique for due diligence allowed members of the alleged cash-laundering ring to move suspicious budgets to homes in Dubai.
Alex Cobham, head of the Tax Justice Network, said regulators have “a legal responsibility to identify the source of the funds. “Since 2019, genuine real estate agents in Dubai are legally required to conduct anti-money laundering threat assessments.
The link with Su Jianfeng and Fidu may be embarrassing for Emaar and, by extension, Dubai’s ruler, Cobham said, adding that the case could serve as a catalyst for more regulation in the emirate.
“You could say that the royal circle of relatives is [a victim] of the general failure of any popular regulator and the bad press this generates,” Cobham said. “Anyway, it’s up to them to replace that, because they preside over total government. “system. “
Dubai Unlocked is based on leaked insights that offer a detailed review of thousands of homes in Dubai and data on their ownership or use, largely between 2020 and 2022.
The knowledge was received through the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D. C. which studies crime and foreign conflicts. It was subsequently shared with the Norwegian monetary centre E24 and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which coordinated an investigative task with dozens of media outlets around the world.
The knowledge includes the indexed owner of each property, as well as other identifying data such as their date of birth, passport number, and nationality. In some cases, the knowledge captured tenants rather than landlords.
Journalists used this knowledge as a starting point to explore the landscape of foreign real estate ownership in Dubai. They spent months verifying the identities of Americans featured in the leaked knowledge, as well as confirming their ownership status, official documents, open-source research, and other leaked knowledge sets.
Officials in the United Arab Emirates (including those from the Ministries of Interior, Economy and Justice) and Dubai police did not respond to detailed questions from journalists. The UAE’s embassies in the UK and Norway sent a brief comment saying the country is “working intensively with foreign partners”. to disrupt and deter the entire bureaucracy of illicit finance. “
“The UAE is determined to continue those efforts and movements more than ever today and in the long term,” he added.
Emaar Properties responded to written requests for comment.
Fidu Properties and Su Jianfeng’s lawyer responded to emailed requests for comment.
In videos posted on Fidu’s social media accounts, Su Jianfeng presents himself as a childish and modestly dressed, but obviously in charge, executive. In one video, he leads Fidu executives to a gala gala to enthusiastic applause from workers. In another, he presides over the opening of a second corporate office in September 2019, cutting a giant red ribbon as he cheers.
Despite the Chinese arrest warrant issued against him, Su Jianfeng, 36, who holds Chinese, Cambodian, St. Kitts and Nevis and Vanuatu passports, has invested huge sums of money in real estate in Dubai.
Between 2017 and 2020, Su Jianfeng bought at least 10 apartments and two villas in Dubai, for at least $15 million, according to knowledge of the transaction leaked and reviewed through OCCRP.
In April 2019, he co-founded Fidu Properties DMCC, a subsidiary of Fidu Property Real Estate Brokerage that was incorporated in Dubai at the end of 2017.
Fidu Properties DMCC is located in the Dubai Free Trade Zone, where foreign investors can benefit from tax exemptions, capital movement facilities, and the right to full foreign ownership. He controls a 50% stake in the company and is one of the two directors, Dubai. corporate records reveal.
The other part of Fidu Properties DMCC is owned by Su Sihai, who is the sole shareholder of the affiliated company, Fidu Property Real Estate Brokerage. Su Sihai has been involved in the cash laundering case in Singapore and has been charged with any wrongdoing. he declined to comment on his ties to Su Jianfeng.
Following the 2023 arrests, Singapore police seized more than $170 million worth of assets in Singapore belonging to Su Jianfeng, adding at least thirteen homes to more than $85 million.
Two of Su Jianfeng’s alleged accomplices also own homes in Dubai. One of them, Su Haijin, has already pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April to 14 months in prison.
Like many of the arrested suspects, Su Haijin has giant portfolios of assets around the world, as reported through OCCRP.
But the leaked knowledge shows never-before-seen homes in Dubai, adding up to 11 apartments with an estimated total value of at least $11 million. The sets took up the entire 58th lot of Grande Downtown, Emaar’s luxury resort across from the Burj Khalifa.
Lin Baoying, a Dominican and Cambodian citizen, is the third user arrested by Singapore police who recently revealed assets in Dubai. She owns a luxury villa in Emirates Hills, an Emaar development, for at least $7 million. He is in Singapore awaiting trial.
Su Haijin and Lin Baoying’s lawyer responded to requests for comment.
In addition to the suspects arrested on money laundering charges, leaked new knowledge about real estate investments of two businessmen, Su Binghai and Su Bingwang, named as “persons of interest” in the Singapore case. Neither has been charged and there are no warrants for their arrest. his arrest.
The couple owns more than 30 homes in Dubai, worth at least $22 million.
Also listed is Chen Mulin, summoned through Singapore’s Ministry of Justice in connection with the case, who has not yet been arrested. The Cypriot and Cambodian national owns at least 24 homes in Dubai valued at more than $20 million. He has not been charged with any crime, and there is no warrant for his arrest.
Chen Mulin owns a series of sets at The Grand at Dubai Creek Harbour, a 62-story skyscraper with panoramic perspectives of the Dubai city skyline that was the subject of a $100 million joint investment deal between Emaar and Fidu shortly after after the brokerage company was established. .
Like Su Haijin, he also owns an entire plot of land in Grande Downtown: 67. Grounds 66 and 68 are the sole property of Su Shuiming and Su Shuijun, who are wanted by Chinese police for alleged fees for illegal online gambling. The 3 percent men of a residential area in the suburbs.
Su Binghai, Su Bingwang, Chen Mulin, Su Shuiming, and Su Shuijun responded to requests for comment.
Emaar, subsidized through Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund and the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, knew China as a market for its long-term expansion strategy in 2018, the same year Fidu Properties opened its local office.
Since then, Chinese-language billboards announcing key Emaar projects have circulated along Dubai’s highways, and the company’s call written in Chinese is featured at the Dubai Fountain Show, an overnight tourist exhibit centered around the Burj Khalifa.
Emaar’s largest shareholder is the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, which owns around 22% of the company’s shares. The largest shareholder is Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.
Dubai Holding is also Emaar’s joint venture partner for the major Dubai Creek Port project, of which The Grand at Dubai Creek Harbour, negotiated through Fidu, is a key component.
Emaar works with several brokers, however, Fidu’s online page boasts of having achieved Emaar’s “Best Platinum Broker” prestige, stating that it is one of the developer’s most prominent partners. The online page also claims that Fidu won the fourth position in Emaar’s Best Brokers Awards in 2019 and the most sensible Chinese real estate brokerage company in Dubai that year.
Connections between key figures in the companies are established through photographs with Emaar’s most level-headed executive, Mohamed Alabbar, and senior Fidu executives, as well as private visits through Fawaz Sous, Emaar’s then head of sales, to Fidu’s offices. published on the websites and social networks of both companies.
Emaar CEO Amit Jain is also pictured with Su Sihai, Su Jianfeng’s wife in Fidu.
When Su Jianfeng applied for bail in October 2023, he said in an affidavit to a Singapore court that he had worked as a real estate agent in Dubai and earned commissions on referrals that constituted a valid quote brought to Singapore.
The courts denied his request for bail because he was unable to provide verifiable documents about his employment or real estate transactions.
Fidu continues to operate in Dubai and has a “strong agreement with a world-renowned developer”, Emaar.
Despite his ties to Fidu, Su Jianfeng is not listed among the 25 indexed subsidiaries as a member of the company’s team.
However, an archived edition of the site from 2020 features Su Jianfeng’s spouse in Fidu, Su Sihai, and appoints him as CEO. It shows a photo of the organization showing the status of the couple in the center, surrounded by other members. The profile and photo have since been deleted.
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