Dubai families lose millions as police arrest owners of investment firm

Gulf News

Thousands of Dubai investors are trying to reclaim millions of dirhams lost after a police crackdown on the Sunfeast Infotech outsourcing firm. XPRESS goes undercover to investigate.

Transcript

00:00A staggering 6,000-plus families in Dubai are on the edge following a crackdown on controversial

00:16Indian outsourcing firm Sunfeast Infotech.

00:19The owners of the firm have been taken into police custody as part of an ongoing investigation

00:25into the scheme, in which many have put their life savings, some borrowed from banks and

00:30loan sharks.

00:31Sunfeast Infotech's business model looked good while it lasted, which in this case was

00:36just a little over one year.

00:38But when the Ponzi-like scheme collapsed following a police raid on April 29, it left behind

00:44a long trail of devastated investors.

00:47In the fervent hope of recovering their lost millions, hundreds turned up for a reconciliation

00:52meeting on April 15, but the meet ended abruptly without any discernible solution.

00:58Torn between hope and despair, scores of angry investors then laid an eight-hour-long siege

01:04at Sunfeast's Gusseh's office last Sunday, demanding their money back.

01:22With things getting out of hand, the Sunfeast staff fled the scene, but the investors refused

01:35to budge.

01:37Not even when the firm shut off the lights and left them in the dark.

01:41Express was able to speak to some of the investors about their losses.

01:52Nobody knows when the company will reopen, when the owners will be released, and what

02:16will happen to the money estimated at millions of dirhams.

02:19Abhishek Sengupta for Express.

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