The Guardian: Documents reveal the real estate empire of Sheikh Khalifa...

We begin with the Guardian newspaper and a lengthy report prepared by Harry Davis entitled “Documents reveal the real estate empire of Sheikh Khalifa in London worth 5 billion pounds sterling”.

The report says that the row of homes built in the 1960s with untidy gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond on the Thames has little in common with the red-brick Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge, where Julian Assange spent seven years in hiding, on the other side of the road. From Harrods.

Modest suburban residences in London also have little in common with the location where the Queen was born in central London, or Sexy Fish, a seafood restaurant in the upscale Mayfair area where diners sit among the mermaid sculptures of British artist Dimian Hirst.

The report notes that the common denominator among all these properties is that they form part of a secret real estate empire worth 5.5 billion pounds owned by one of the richest heads of state in the world, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and the Emir of Abu Dhabi.

Despite the fame of these buildings, ownership of this real estate portfolio has been shrouded in secrecy for decades. According to the writer, a source familiar with the commercial dealings of Sheikh Khalifa reported that the portfolio was established through semi-secret deals that were quietly concluded over many years.

But now, leaked documents, court documents and an analysis of public records have enabled the Guardian to identify Khalifas real estate holdings in the United Kingdom, and revealed how the president of the oil-rich country became a major owner of real estate in London, apparently surpassing the empire of the Duke of Westminster, Hue. Richard Louis Grosvenor, a 29-year-old aristocratic billionaire who owns vast swathes of London.

The report reveals that Khalifas personal property portfolio, which spans some of London’s most expensive neighborhoods, is largely made up of “premium” commercial and residential properties. Where one apartment in one of the luxury complexes in the portfolio is currently offered in the market for about 20 million pounds.

Analysis of the real estate registry data indicates that Khalifas commercial and private portfolio includes about 170 properties, ranging from a secluded mansion near Richmond Park to many high-end office buildings in London leased to investment funds and investment banks, with an annual rental income of £ 160 million.

The documents highlight how it is possible for a wealthy investor like Sheikh Khalifa to build a sprawling real estate portfolio in Britain, with around 1,000 tenants, thanks to a complex structure of fictitious companies in offshore shelters run by some of London’s largest law firms, without anyone discovering it.

The report states that there is no indication that any wrongdoing is committed and owning property in the UK through overseas companies is completely legal, but the UK government has committed to providing a registry for foreign companies owning property in the UK to make the market more transparent and to fight corruption as well.

The ruler of the UAE, who was reported to have suffered a stroke in 2014 and has since become “mentally disabled”, did not respond to the Guardian newspaper’s repeated requests for comment.

Recently, the report reveals that the sheikh’s property is at the center of a dispute in the Supreme Court, where members of the Khalifa family are competing to control his assets, according to lawyers for the Lancer company, which was managing Khalifa’s real estate portfolio, as they cited a document they claim shows that control of his assets has been handed over. Secretly to a special committee in 2015. The baptized document appears to be signed by Khalifa, but according to the report, it appears that the signature belongs to his brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates and one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East.

The document, published by the investigative site Sarawak for the first time and seen by the Guardian newspaper, states that Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, half-brother of Khalifa, is chairing the committee, indicating that some major real estate in London are now in government hands, at the time when Lawyers representing Khalifa deny that he has “ceded control of his assets.”

The report concludes by saying that Abu Dhabi money has continued to flow into “high-quality” London real estate in recent years thanks to the weaker pound. But the Coronavirus has turned the tables on the real estate market. His influence is beginning to emerge around the Khalifa real estate portfolio, which is now managed by a company owned by the Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG).

And to the Financial Times newspaper and an article written by Martin Arnold entitled “The second wave of Corona virus in Europe raises fears of a double-dip recession.”

The article indicates that there are fears that the European economy will slide into a double-dip recession, as economists have warned that the increase in Coronavirus infections and new government restrictions on the movement of people may cut off the road to the recent economic recovery in the region.

Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands announced measures last week to contain the second wave of the spread of the virus, and these measures come in the wake of a sharp rise in the number of cases, which is expected to increase in the coming weeks, according to the article.

“I can’t believe how fast the second wave has spread,” says Allianz chief economist Katarina Otermull. “We are now seeing negative growth in many countries in the fourth quarter, and it is quite possible to have another recession.”

Although the third-quarter figures are expected to show record growth in the GDP of the euro area when published at the end of this month, the writer confirms that an increasing number of economists are already cutting their expectations for the fourth quarter into negative territory. Lena Komileva, chief economist at G Plus Economics, a consultancy and investment research, says the disruption to Brexit will “further amplify” the economic downturn.

These predictions that the eurozone economy will slide back into recession – albeit much less than it was earlier in the year – are bad news for the European Central Bank, which only last month forecast fourth-quarter growth of more than 3%. It is also another setback that would jeopardize the European Central Bank’s belief that the eurozone economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by 2022.

While most analysts expect the European Central Bank to react to the struggling economy by adding an additional 500 billion euros to its emergency bond-buying program in December, the writer shows that political leaders still hope their countries will avoid the strict lockdown that caused a record recession in the second quarter of this. “Politicians have learned their lessons from the first wave,” confirmed Joerg Kramer, chief economist at Commerzbank, Germany, adding, “A second shutdown is not expected due to the enormous economic costs.”

But the writer believes that with daily infection levels in many countries rising at a much higher rate than the previous wave of the epidemic in March and April, and hospital beds filling again, governments may have no choice but to tighten restrictions further.

We conclude with the implications of the exclusive report published by the Sunday Times newspaper about allegations that a British employee was “sexually assaulted” by Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, a senior member of the Emirati ruling family, where Dominic Kennedy wrote a report in The Times newspaper entitled “High Festival Abu Dhabi Leaders Defend About holding a literary festival despite allegations of sexual assault. “

The report says that the organizers of the Hay Festival branch to promote women’s empowerment in the Gulf, last night, defended their decision to go ahead with the festival after a colleague of them claimed that she was harassed by a sheikh from the ruling family in the Emirates.

Scotland Yard is investigating allegations that Caitlin McNamara, 32, was sexually assaulted in a villa in Abu Dhabi on Valentine’s Day by Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, 69, the UAE Minister of Tolerance, who denies all of her allegations.

The report notes that the case raises concerns about whether the Hay Festival has adequately taken into account the ordeal to which McNamara was subjected, and why the Foundation accepted the invitation to hold the festival in a country with a bad reputation for civil liberties. But the organizers justify their continuation of the event by giving them a platform to advocate for women’s empowerment, freedom of expression, and human rights.

“I hope this incident signals an end to the UK’s book community’s role in whitewashing the reputation of this insulting system,” says children’s book author Jonathan Emmett, according to the article. “Why went on?” Asks Martin Bright, a former political editor at the New State. The festival moved forward after this horrific attack? “

At a time when Sheikh Nahyan’s lawyer, Schillings, said: “Our client is astonished and sad about this allegation, which was spoken about eight months after the alleged incident and through a national newspaper. This testimony is rejected,” said Caroline Michel, Chair of the Festival’s Board of Directors: “We proceeded. First, the project aims explicitly to provide an open and free platform … to promote issues of freedom of expression, women’s empowerment and human rights in the region.