UAE residents regain hope as India orders Heera Group auction
UAE residents who lost their life savings to the fraudster schemes of Heera Group have expressed joy following the order by India’s Supreme Court on Monday directing the auctioning of two properties belonging to Heera Group’s managing director, Nowhera Shaikh. This auction will assist the recovery of funds meant for deceitful investors.
The court further directed Shaikh to pay an amount of Rs250 million (Dh11 million) to India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a period of three months in order to reimburse the people allegedly affected by the Ponzi scheme.
The decision has, however, elicited restrained hope from hundreds of the UAE investors who are victims of the so-called fraudulent scheme. Among the infuriated investors are Nasim Rajab who is from Abu Dhabi, MK from Dubai and Shahid Khan who hails from Sharjah and had invested Dh120,000, Dh90,000 and Dh75, 000, respectively, into this schemer’s cruel plans that have failed.
“So for the first time in 6-long years, I am able to see light at the end of the tunnel,” said the man who resides in Dubai.
Heera Group operated through three investment plans in the United Arab Emirates, they were; Heera Gold, which promised to pay Dh3,250 per month if a capital of Dh 100,000 was invested for a period of one year Heera Textiles, which had a minimum investment of Dh 15,000 and promised an annual return of between 65 to 70 percent over a two-year investment span, and Heera Foodex which also had a minimum investment of Dh 15,000 but had a expected profit of up to 80 percent per annum and a lock-in period of two years. Attracted by the extremely generous rates of return, a lot of investors went to the extent of taking loans from the banks to invest in the schemes.
However, in 2018 Heera Group was dissolved and Nowhera Shaikh imprisoned after promises of returns ceased. Many investors from UAE were worried about the situation and hurries to Heera Group's office based in Jumeirah Lake Towers only to be dissatisfied as the office was closed. Even trips to Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah warehouses bore no fruit, furthering the wave of confusion and disappointment for the investors.
Shaikh’s bail was revoked last month by India’s Supreme Court because she failed to deposit Rs580 crore (Dh252 million) towards all outstanding claims via the property auctions. She was also instructed to hand herself over within 2 weeks. However, during the hearing on Monday she and her lawyers sought for more time which the court granted as the process of her legal representation is still ongoing.
Shahbaz Ahmad Khan, a whistleblower and president of All India Heera Group Victims Association appreciated the judgment of the court as a victory but cautioned that there would be several investors who would still be left dry. Khan said that only those who went to the SFIO would be compensated out of the proceeds of sale of properties which belonged to Shaikh.
"Those investors, in claims that have been made either in the UAE or India, will be compensated from the amounts realized from the sale of the property," Khan said. “But those who haven't filed any claims with the SFIO are the unlucky ones. It's all over for them. They ought to have done so when they were given the opportunity."
In November 2022, due to a resolution from the Supreme Court, the SFIO was able to issue advertisements for claimants to respond with relevant documentation. By November 2022 however, police were only able to report receiving 6,788 claims valued at only Dh 159 million which is a fraction of the over Dh2.5 billion (Dh2,545 million) contributed by about 175,000 individuals as claimed by Indian police.
Ex-school bus driver Khan Shahid, who is among those who have lodged a claim, had some positivity even as he recalled the arduous process. It has been very difficult these last couple of years.” With such a low salary, building a savings of Dh 75,000 is difficult for a school bus driver. That was every left I had."
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