Photo caption: Manal Shaheen (right) with Chris O'Donnell, Naomi Watts, Donald Trump and Melania Trump at the New York launch of the Trump International Hotel & Tower.I first came across Manal Shaheen at Nakheel's multi-million dollar launch of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. She was an affable lady, with a penchant for standing next to celebrities like Heidi Klum and Demi Moore while a couple dozen photographers snapped away.
Today, the Financial Times reports that Ms Shaheen, who was serving as the chief commercial officer at Nakheel, has left the company. In an interview with the FT, she said she left for "personal reasons".
Her leaving Nakheel is a sign of an institutional change underway at Nakheel. Many of the top executives of the company - who were known for their brash and bold sales approach - have either been laid off or, in a few cases, arrested as part of Dubai's corruption probe. It was frequenly said behind closed doors that Nakheel was more of a marketing company than a developer (although it has built some pretty solid projects like Palm Jumeirah).
Ms Shaheen's departure is the most concrete sign yet that things are changing at Nakheel in a substantive way.END
I used to work for Nakheel and I know FOR A FACT that Manal most probably did NOT resign. She was probably fired because she took billions of dollars in bribes and probably embezzled even more. Think about it. She was earning around 150,000 dirhams a month (say $40,000) as a base salary. Why else would someone else just give that up? Especially considering that Manal didn't get her job out of experience or from her qualifications. She got the job because of her connections with the Sheikhs family, namely his daughter.
ReplyDeleteIt's believed that Manal embezzled money out of Nakheel by selling plots of land to her brother at prices far below market value.
The investigation of her corrupt activities started mid-2008 but it took this long to collate all the evidence against her. All of her employees provided evidence against her to police during secret meetings which started around July of 2008.
Manal was also friends with one of the Sheikhs daughters so the police had to ensure that the had enough evidence against her before corruption charges were laid against her.
Word on the street is that Manal was arrested last year but was released after a sultan agreed to marry her. She was then forgiven for her crimes after she paid back all the bribes she'd taken.
Her sidekick, Alya Mahdy, the General Manager of Sales, was also investigated. Many believe she was involved with Manals corrupt activities.
It was a shame that someone who'd stolen so much money from a company kept their job while thousands of hard working employees were fired over the last year or so, but now justice has been served!
This was an open secret among the people in the CS Sales and Marketing dept of Nakheel. I remember her being out of the country when the GM of Sales was taken into custody. A rumor circulated thereafter that she was taken by police upon her arrival in Dubai airport. What happened next? The whole department was called in a meeting by the CEO himself to assure each and everyone that she is a well trusted (sic) officer of Nakheel and that all rumors were baseless. She was so well protected, a royal highness, in her own mind
ReplyDeleteThose were the days...
where is manal now? will she be able to get a job in Dubai?
ReplyDeletei wouldnt be surprised if manal has fled dubai after not appearing as a witness to the matt joyce and marcus lee case. i bet she's somewhere in france.
ReplyDeleteThe peeps around Dubai are now saying that over a BILLION Dirhams was found at Manal Shaheens house.
ReplyDeleteThat........is.........fn......crazy!