Hello,
in 2008 we have successfully completed a project for Anwer Sher, who was then running both Equine Management Services, the Hoofbeatz program at the Dubai Polo Club, and the real estate development Escape Ajman.
After we delivered it, Anwer failed to make the last payments, citing ARRA's blocking of Escape Ajman's funds. Nonetheless he continued to promise to make good, to the point where I believed him and had my company make debts to keep people on staff until payment came.
3 years, 4 breached subsequent agreements later, the last of which in March 2011, we have received a total of $30,000 on an $800K payment, amount which was adjudicated to us through a California law suit.
Anwer, to his credit, never put into question the debt or questioned that we had delivered the product to his satisfaction. He just said he had $0 money.
Even when I asked to start sending SOMETHING - $5, $10K per month, he claimed he did not even have that.
He has single handledly ruined our small but cutting edge company, and I have been paying interests on our debt ever since without being able to catch up.
Even though I have years of correspondence, proving not only the validity of the debt (even with our flexibility to compromise on the final amount) but also Anwer's personal use of funds (piercing the corporate veil) to make one or more of the initial payments to the project, and of Escape Ajman also being almost interchangeably used with Equine Management Services, the law firms we have contacted all say that no matter how right you are, suing someone in Dubai is a very risky proposition because the judicial system is corrupt.
I will not stand down. I want to expose the ruin, financial and subsequently psychological, that has been wrecked upon our company and my family in particular, and warn everyone about doing business with Anwer Sher, Equine Management Services and Escape, as well as encourage boycotting of Hoofbeatz, their equine program at the Dubai Polo Club.
I believe in justice, I believe in the rule of the law, I believe in equality of opportunity and legal representation.
And I need to warn others, if it is true as every single vendor in the US has told me, that one should be very careful when doing business in Dubai because of the unjust ways the law is being applied.
I wish a law firm in Dubai would prove me wrong and take our case on a contingency base, as this is an absolutely uncontentious debt and I just can't believe that we are unable to recover it. If we can't recover it, with such a clear case, a California judgment and years of correspondence casting no doubt on our right to compensation, just imagine what can happen to other businesses whose debtors decide to argue a bit?
In our case, again kudos to Anwer for being straightforward as to our right to the debt, we simply want a settlement that is going to clear our debts. But apparently, Dubai's reputation for unlawfulness is scaring away every single lawyer, and is scaring away businesses too!