RADHA STIRLING - SUCCESSFUL CLIENTS
Michael Smith
"That’s longer than most murderers. I had been counting the days to my freedom. To have that snatched away and face a term longer than the time I’ve already served has brought me close to despair.’" Michael Smith at The Mail Online
"In 2011 a Thai court agreed to extradite British businessman Michael Smith to the UAE to serve a two year sentence; however once Smith was in their custody, the UAE laid additional charges against him, eventually sentencing him to 12 years. Even after receiving a governmental pardon in 2014, Smith was not released." Radha Stirling, CEO and founder of Detained in Dubai
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“We have dealt with innumerable cases over the past decade and some of the public ones have included; Australians Matt Joyce and Marcus Lee, British citizens Safi Qarashi and Mohammed Haddad, Canadian Andre Gauthier, Frenchman Reda Boulahdid, Michael Smith, and Ryan Cornelius, The sheer number is concerning and should be a red alert to the business and investment community whom we are strongly discouraging from continuing to bring their skills, resources and capital to the UAE as long as the business culture and legal environment remains so disastrously risky.” Radha Stirling, CEO and founder of Detained in Dubai - in “Success makes you vulnerable in Dubai” with “no dirty trick off the books”
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‘By the time I get out – if I get out, that is – I will have spent 18 years behind bars for supposedly embezzling £550,000,’ Smith said last week in a phone call from his cell after his seventh Christmas in prison."
The UAE invests a great deal in media advertising; marketing the country globally as a desirable tourist destination and hub for business. It can be disconcerting because one can be looking at an Emirates advertisement on one side of their newspaper, while reading another UAE tourist horror story on the other. Dubai will host Expo 2020 this year, showcasing entrepreneurship, business and development opportunities, despite being one of the riskiest places to invest in the world.
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Over the past decade, we have seen unimaginable, blatantly lawless conduct from local business partners, sponsors, lawyers, and from the ruling families themselves. Foreign investors have served lengthy prison sentences after being levied with false allegations, ostensibly designed to neutralise them while predatory business associates can pick off their assets.