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* Our Projects * Our Reporting * All Investigations * All Scoops * All Features * All News * About * About OCCRP * Our Team * Our Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Accomplice Program * Impact * Annual Reports * Awards * Supporters * Work with Us * History of OCCRP * Board of Directors * Resources for Journalists * OCCRP ID – Research Desk * OCCRP Aleph – Data Platform * Donate * Organized Crime * Asset Seizures * Cartels * Fraud * Laundromats * Drugs * Smuggling * All Organized Crime * Corruption * Embezzlement * Sanctions Busting * COVID 19 * Election-rigging * All Corruption * Regions * Russia * United States * United Arab Emirates * Azerbaijan * Europe * All Regions * Resources for Journalists * OCCRP Aleph * Explore Datasets * OCCRP ID * Get Help Researching Your Story * OCCRP * About Us * Our Team * Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Subscribe to our Newsletter * Accomplice Program * Announcements * Impact to Date * Video * Features * All Projects * Leak to OCCRP * Bypassing Censorship No result for See all results undefined MATCHING RESULTS undefined See all results OCCRP * About Us * Our Team * Global Network * Global Anti-Corruption Consortium * Subscribe to our Newsletter * Accomplice Program * Announcements * Impact to Date * Video * Features * All Projects * Leak to OCCRP * Bypassing Censorship * * * * * Donate Get quality reporting directly into your inbox, every week Subscribe to our newsletter: Submit Submit By submitting your email address you agree to OCCRP’s Privacy Policy * en * Dubai Unlocked * Kyrgyzstan: The Shadow Investor * Cyprus Confidential * Russian Asset Tracker * Ukraine * Russia * Georgia REAL ESTATE DEAL WITH ROYAL RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT DRUG TRAFFICKER RAFFAELE IMPERIALE’S BUSINESS IN DUBAI Scoop Imperiale, who lived freely in Dubai for years despite being wanted for drug trafficking in Italy and Spain, was a shareholder in a real estate company that built luxury villas in the Emirati city-state. He exited the company shortly after Spanish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest and sought his extradition. A year later, the son of Dubai’s ruler received a majority stake in the company — and Imperiale was there to sign the papers. The Palm Jumeirah is a palm-shaped artificial island off Dubai's coast. At the tip of Frond M, five villas were built by a company founded by Raffaele Imperiale. Banner: Ole Martin Wold Banner: Ole Martin Wold RELATED ARTICLES GEORGIAN MAYOR’S FAMILY IS BEHIND SECRETIVE HOTEL PROJECT IN PICTURESQUE MOUNTAIN TOWN The mayor of Lentekhi, Gia Oniani, awarded a permit to build a hotel to his wife’s company and is still involved in the firm. MAJOR CANADIAN BANKS TD AND RBC HOLD MORTGAGES FOR ALLEGED TORONTO MAFIA BOSS Angelo Figliomeni was at the center of a media storm when police brought organized crime and money laundering charges against him in 2019. But the charges were never tried in court, and two top banks continued to do business with him, documents show. A MAN CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING HAD TIES TO A FIRM HOLDING STATE CANNABIS CONTRACTS Michael Shvartsman was convicted of insider trading, while Eric Hannelius settled without admitting or denying guilt. Both men were involved in a company with contracts to track legal marijuana in Florida and other states. MAJOR CANADIAN BANKS TD AND RBC HOLD MORTGAGES FOR ALLEGED TORONTO MAFIA BOSS Angelo Figliomeni was at the center of a media storm when police brought organized crime and money laundering charges against him in 2019. But the charges were never tried in court, and two top banks continued to do business with him, documents show. A MAN CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING HAD TIES TO A FIRM HOLDING STATE CANNABIS CONTRACTS Michael Shvartsman was convicted of insider trading, while Eric Hannelius settled without admitting or denying guilt. Both men were involved in a company with contracts to track legal marijuana in Florida and other states. GEORGIAN MAYOR’S FAMILY IS BEHIND SECRETIVE HOTEL PROJECT IN PICTURESQUE MOUNTAIN TOWN The mayor of Lentekhi, Gia Oniani, awarded a permit to build a hotel to his wife’s company and is still involved in the firm. MAJOR CANADIAN BANKS TD AND RBC HOLD MORTGAGES FOR ALLEGED TORONTO MAFIA BOSS Angelo Figliomeni was at the center of a media storm when police brought organized crime and money laundering charges against him in 2019. But the charges were never tried in court, and two top banks continued to do business with him, documents show. A MAN CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING HAD TIES TO A FIRM HOLDING STATE CANNABIS CONTRACTS Michael Shvartsman was convicted of insider trading, while Eric Hannelius settled without admitting or denying guilt. Both men were involved in a company with contracts to track legal marijuana in Florida and other states. GEORGIAN MAYOR’S FAMILY IS BEHIND SECRETIVE HOTEL PROJECT IN PICTURESQUE MOUNTAIN TOWN The mayor of Lentekhi, Gia Oniani, awarded a permit to build a hotel to his wife’s company and is still involved in the firm. MAJOR CANADIAN BANKS TD AND RBC HOLD MORTGAGES FOR ALLEGED TORONTO MAFIA BOSS Angelo Figliomeni was at the center of a media storm when police brought organized crime and money laundering charges against him in 2019. But the charges were never tried in court, and two top banks continued to do business with him, documents show. REPORTED BY Eduardo Anzianao IRPI OCCRP Koen Voskuil RTL Nieuws Also published by our partners IRPIMedia (Italy, in Italian) RTL Nieuws (The Netherlands, in Dutch) and InfoLibre (Spain, in Spanish) November 27, 2024 * * * * * The son of Dubai’s ruler owned a majority stake in a real estate firm formerly chaired by convicted Italian drug trafficker Raffalele Imperiale. The company, AA Real Estate Development, which built luxury villas in the Emirati city-state, is one of several real estate firms Imperiale was involved in during the 2010s, when he was a fugitive from Italian justice hiding out in Dubai. In addition to serving as chairman of the board of directors for AA Real Estate Development, Imperiale also owned a stake in it through a local company, along with several other Italian and Emirati citizens. But he stepped down as chairman about a month after Spanish authorities issued a warrant for Imperiale’s arrest and requested his extradition in August 2014. Credit: Interpol/Dubai police Raffaele Imperiale Credit: Interpol/Dubai police Raffaele Imperiale Credit: Interpol/Dubai police Raffaele Imperiale At the same time, the company through which Imperiale and his co-investors held their shares in AA Real Estate Development transferred its entire 49-percent stake to another company managed by an Italian man named Mario Sarnataro. Imperiale later told Italian prosecutors that Sarnatero had once worked for him, and had served as his proxy in another real estate deal. Then, the following year, that company went into business with Sheikh Marwan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, whose father is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler since 2006. The younger Al Maktoum signed a contract in November 2015 to acquire a majority stake in AA Real Estate Development, according to a copy of the signed contract obtained by OCCRP, IrpiMedia, and RTL Nieuws. The agreement was also signed by Imperiale — acting as a representative of Atef Karrani, who had held the other 51 percent of the company. Karrani was a former manager at Dubai’s Land Department, which oversees the real estate sector, and had co-owned the company since it was created. At the time, foreigners starting companies in Dubai were required to have a local partner. When Al Maktoum signed the contract in 2015, he took over Karrani’s shares. Karrani declined to comment on selling his shares in AA Real Estate Development, and why Imperiale acted on his behalf in the deal. Sarnataro, who has no known charges against him, did not respond to requests for comment. It’s not known how much the prince paid for the stake, or whether he was aware that Imperiale was a wanted drug trafficker at the time. Al Maktoum did not respond to repeated requests for comment. ‘MASQUERADING’ IN REAL ESTATE Originally from Naples, the home of the Camorra crime group, Imperiale moved to Amsterdam in the early 1990s. He got into the drug business in the Netherlands, and soon became a major cocaine supplier for the Camorra. Imperiale moved to Spain around 2006, and by 2010 he was living in Dubai, according to “Il Narcos,” a book written by the lead Italian investigator in his case. In his new home in the Gulf emirate, Imperiale presented himself as a real estate developer, even as he continued to coordinate the import of thousands of kilograms of cocaine from South America to Europe, according to a 2022 indictment from Italy. “I was bragging about it to everyone, masquerading as an entrepreneur,” he told Italian prosecutors, referring to a deal in which he purchased an artificial island known as “Taiwan” for 13 million euros ($19 million). The island was part of a large archipelago shaped like the seven continents being constructed by a company owned by the Dubai government. “This project was my business card,” Imperiale told prosecutors. It was also a way to launder large amounts of money he was taking in from his drug trafficking, according to Italian authorities. An Italian judge eventually seized Taiwan island, because it was suspected of having been purchased with the proceeds of drug trafficking. Credit: Graphic: Lorenzo Bodrero/IrpiMedia Photo: Ole Martin Wold Taiwan Island in the artificial archipelago off the Dubai coast. The judge said in the May 2024 seizure decree that the island’s value — between 30 and 50 million euros ($45 to $74 million) — was “enormously inferior to what was certainly the profit or product of the illegal activity for which he is prosecuted.” AN ITALIAN PROXY Imperiale did not buy “Taiwan” in his own name. Instead, he says he used a proxy: Mario Sarnataro, the same Italian who also took over Imperiale’s shares in AA Real Estate Development, and went on to sign the agreement with Al Maktoum in 2015. Imperiale told Italian prosecutors that he paid Sarnataro 400,000 UAE dirhams (more than $100,000) to put the Taiwan island purchase under the name of a company called Rajaa Tradings Investment Management. (According to the Dubai Land Registry, “Taiwan” is indeed owned by Rajaa Tradings Investments Management Limited, although reporters were unable to obtain ownership documents for the company.) Imperiale said he had known Sarnataro since around 2007, when he was living in Spain. Sarnataro was “doing work for Italian restaurants, including Perla di Napoli, my restaurant in Madrid,” Imperiale said. He said he later encountered Sarnatero in Dubai, where he was importing construction materials, and enlisted him as a proxy. Sarnataro did not respond to requests for comment on Imperiale’s claim that he had served as a proxy owner. Meanwhile, Imperiale had also become involved with two other Dubai firms, AA Investments and Development and AA Real Estate Development, the company the Sheik ended up with a stake in, which was set up in 2013. In 2015, on top of the Spanish charges, Imperiale was indicted for drug trafficking by a judge in the southern Italian city of Naples, where he was born. Italy followed up with an extradition request to the UAE in 2016, which also went unanswered. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have declined to comment on the case. MOST WANTED Dubai has long had a reputation as a haven for high-profile alleged criminals like Daniel Kinahan of Ireland, and convicted ones such as Ridouan Taghi of the Netherlands, and Dutch-Bosnian Edin Gačanin. Imperiale, Taghi and Gačanin all reportedly attended Kinahan’s wedding in 2017 at Dubai’s Burj al Arab hotel. Taghi has since been sent to the Netherlands and convicted, and a prosecution document from March shows he was appealing. Gačanin was convicted after a trial at a Dutch court, which he attended via videolink, but he has not been extradited. The UAE recently signed a treaty with Ireland, opening a path to Kinahan’s extradition. Jodi Vittori, a professor at Georgetown University and expert on illicit finance, told OCCRP for its Dubai Unlocked project earlier this year that it was unclear why some extradition requests to the United Arab Emirates are met with cooperation and others are not. “In many ways, the UAE is a law-enforcement black hole,” she said. Not only was Imperiale living openly in the emirati city-state, he was living lavishly. Italian court documents show that he spent 3.2 million euros (about $3.5 million) on “personal expenses” over the course of just three months in 2020. The drug trafficker remained on Italy’s most wanted list until he was finally arrested in Dubai in 2021 for passport fraud, and deported the following year. After his conviction, he became a witness for the Italian state, providing prosecutors with details about his drug business and associates. Imperiale is currently in prison serving a sentence of 15 years and eight months. Credit: Dubai police Raffaele Imperiale during his arrest in 2021. As for AA Real Estate Development, between 2012 and 2017 the company built five luxury villas on the tip of a leaf in Palm Jumeirah, a tree-shaped artificial island off Dubai’s coast. The villas — each with their own spa, infinity pool, and access to a private beach — were sold off for a total of almost 20 million euros ($25 million). A year after the final villa was completed, in 2018, the prince exited the company. The firm's license expired four years later, in July 2022, four months after Imperiale was finally deported. There is no record of it ever having done any real estate development outside of the five villas it built on Palm Jumeirah. November 27, 2024 * * * * * November 27, 2024 * * * * * READ OTHER ARTICLES TAGGED WITH: Drugs Money Laundering Real Estate Show more Italy United Arab Emirates Show more Raffaele Imperiale Show more JOIN THE FIGHT. HOLD POWER TO ACCOUNT. Donate Support from readers like you helps OCCRP expose organized crime and corruption around the world. By donating, you’ll be directly supporting investigative journalism as a public good. You’ll also gain access to exclusive insights and benefits. Donate RELATED REPORTING Aug 24, 2021 ITALIAN MAFIA BOSS LINKED TO VAN GOGH THEFTS ARRESTED IN DUBAI A suspected mafia boss and one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives since 2016 was arrested in Dubai after spending years on the... Jun 12, 2018 NIGERIAN OIL AND DUBAI LAND A leak of private property data in Dubai has shed new light on how the proceeds of a notorious US$ 1.3 billion oil deal... Sep 23, 2020 US DRUG AGENTS SAY DIPLOMACY TRUMPED MONEY LAUNDERING CONCERNS Action against Dubai’s Kaloti Jewellery Group could have angered a US ally in the Middle East. Don't let them kill the story. We need your help to continue defending those who risk everything to tell stories in the public interest. 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