A Dubai judge rejects Denmark's extradition request: Sanjay Shah will not be extradited to Denmark.

British national Sanjay Shah is one of the suspected perpetrators of defrauding the Danish state of billions of kroner.

British financier Sanjay Shah, accused of defrauding the Danish treasury of more than nine billion kroner, may be on his way to being released. According to Shah's lawyer, a judge in Dubai refused to extradite Sanjay Shah to Denmark.

Otherwise, Shah was imprisoned for several months, but the lawyer will now try to get his client released.

Billions of dollars fraud
Shah is believed to have played a leading role in the profits tax scandal, which cost the Danish treasury around 12.7 billion Danish kroner.

About three months ago, Dubai police announced the arrest of British national Sanjay Shah (51 years old), who is accused of defrauding the Danish state of billions of Danish kroner. Sanjay Shah has been living in Dubai for many years. This came after former Danish Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup signed an extradition agreement between Denmark and the United Arab Emirates at the Ministry of Justice in Abu Dhabi last March, one of whose objectives was to extradite the accused Shah to Denmark.

Danish Justice Minister Mattias Tesfaye confirmed that the arrest of the suspect was carried out following close cooperation with the authorities of the Emirate of Dubai.

The following is the text of the statement issued by Dubai Police at the time (as quoted from the Emirates Today website):

“Dubai Police have arrested an international fraudster named Sanjay Shah, a 52-year-old British national, who is one of the most wanted men by Danish authorities for his involvement in the largest tax fraud and money laundering operation in the history of the Kingdom of Denmark, amounting to 12 billion kroner, equivalent to about 1.7 billion dollars, through the establishment of several companies specializing in ”submitting tax refund applications with incorrect data.”.

Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri commended the efforts of the teams involved in the arrest of Sanjay Shah after Dubai Police received an international arrest warrant from the Danish authorities to the International Cooperation Department of the UAE Ministry of Justice, as the central authority responsible for receiving official international cooperation requests and forwarding them to the Public Prosecution in Dubai.

He added that the arrest of ”Sanjay Shah” came after continuous and accurate monitoring of his movements by the work teams of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, under the supervision and follow-up of the Public Prosecution in Dubai, stressing the keenness of the Dubai Police General Command, with the support and guidance of the wise leadership, to develop the deep and established relations between the United Arab Emirates and various countries of the world in the field of combating all forms of organized crime, including financial crimes.

For his part, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police for Criminal Investigation Affairs, Major General Expert Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, said that the operation was the result of an exchange of information with the Danish authorities regarding Sanjay Shah. A working group was then formed from the Wanted Persons Department and the Anti-Money Laundering Department of the General Department of Criminal Investigation to monitor his movements and determine his place of residence, and then they worked to monitor his activities in order to arrest him.

The Director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, Brigadier Jamal Al-Jallaf, stated that ”Sanjay Shah” established a number of companies to launder profits resulting from tax fraud by submitting tax refund claims with incorrect data about “Comex” tax-related transactions, which means buying shares shortly before the distribution of their profits and selling them immediately after the distribution, with the aim of making huge profits from tax refunds paid to the Danish government.

He explained that Dubai Police had referred the case of ”Sanjay Shah” to the Public Prosecution to take legal action to hand him over in accordance with international laws followed in this regard.”

Source: Various articles from Emirati websites and TV2 website