In an official letter from its headquarters in Washington, the Global Justice Foundation urged the authorities to uphold transparency and fairness in the Tameer case, which has been under litigation for seventeen years in the Dubai courts. The Foundation emphasized that justice should never be a privilege afforded to those with power or wealth, but a right guaranteed to every individual without exception.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Ruler of Dubai
Your Highness,
The Global Justice Foundation (GJF) writes with profound respect to draw Your Highness’s attention to the Tameer Holding Investment case, which has now entered its seventeenth year before the Dubai courts. The matter has become a measure of Dubai’s enduring commitment to its own governing principles, namely that no one is above the law and delayed justice is an injustice. However, this case reveals how these principles have been violated through the exploitation of legal loopholes, the exercise of undue influence, and the dereliction of duty by appointed experts.
The Global Justice Foundation (GJF) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to strengthening judicial integrity and the rule of law in commerce. Its establishment was inspired by the Tameer case and the need to confront how legal systems can be exploited to undermine justice. Since its founding, the Foundation has brought together prominent volunteer leaders committed to advancing justice and accountability, including Sidney Powell, former federal prosecutor and author of Licensed to Lie; Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee; Jim Moran, former U.S. Congressman and attorney who served on key federal budget and foreign affairs committees; and the late Kenneth Starr, former U.S. Solicitor General and Independent Counsel whose career reflected a lifelong pursuit of ethical governance.
Omar Ayesh, founder of Tameer Holding and developer of the Princess Tower, which once held the Guinness World Record as the world’s tallest residential building, has been engaged in litigation since 2009 with his partner in Tameer, Ahmad AlRajhi. During the proceedings, the court-appointed expert committee, chaired by Dr. Redha Al Rahma, issued a preliminary report valuing Ayesh’s compensation at approximately AED 6.8 billion for the unlawful seizure of his rights in Tameer. Before the final report could be submitted, Dr. Al Rahma resigned, informing the court that he had been subjected to threats and improper pressure from the minister, a reference to Ahmad AlRajhi. His resignation was accepted without investigation, even though threatening court-appointed experts is a criminal offense. In the United States and the United Kingdom, for example, laws such as 18 U.S.C. §1512 and Section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 classify such acts as obstruction of justice and criminalize any form of threat or intimidation against witnesses, including experts.
Nevertheless, the Dubai Court of First Instance issued its judgment in 2020, awarding Ayesh AED 1.6 billion (approximately USD 435 million) in compensation, in addition to damages and interest, based on the final report of a newly appointed expert committee. Five years later, the appellate proceedings remain ongoing.
The expert process during the appeal has been marked by irregularities and a lack of transparency. Following the failure to address the threats made against Dr. Redha Al Rahma and his withdrawal from the assignment, five court-appointed experts in succession declined to take on the case, prompting the judge to refer the matter to the Expert Affairs and Dispute Settlement Department of the Ruler’s Court (Dewan) of Dubai.
The Ruler’s Court Expert Committee later informed the court that it lacked the resources to conduct a full examination of the case and requested the appointment of an external auditor. Deloitte was engaged at a cost exceeding USD 4 million, leaving the parties with no choice but to bear this expense. This situation underscores a troubling reality: justice in Dubai appears attainable only to those with the financial means to pursue it.
Deloitte’s audit team subse3quently issued its report in January 2025, shortly after all members of the forensic team had resigned under questionable circumstances and joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC maintains extensive business relations with the AlRajhi Group and had previously declined the Dewan’s invitation to participate in the case due to a conflict of interest. The report was submitted without disclosing either the resignations or the conflict arising from them, in clear violation of Article 37 of the UAE Auditors’ Code of Conduct and the IFAC International Ethics Standards for Professional Accountants.
The Ruler’s Court Expert Committee issued its preliminary report in August 2025, relying heavily on Deloitte’s findings. The report contained findings inconsistent with the evidence and documentation on record, prompting Ayesh to request a meeting with Deloitte to address the errors contained in the report. His request was denied. The refusal to grant Ayesh the opportunity to discuss these findings constitutes a violation of his right of defense and deprives him of the ability to present his case in full, in contravention of the principles of due process established under Article 30 of the UAE Civil Procedure Law and Article 121 of the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions.
Although both Deloitte and the Expert Committee concluded that Tameer had incurred losses ranging between AED 2.1 and 2.7 billion (USD 570–730 million) as a result of mismanagement and related-party transactions involving Ahmad AlRajhi, they failed to quantify the full extent of the damage to Ayesh’s rights, an omission that AlRajhi appeared to have anticipated. Consequently, the presiding judge instructed the experts to carry out a clear and comprehensive assessment of these damages and to calculate lost profits to ensure fair and equitable compensation.
A deliberate and coordinated scheme to appropriate the rights of Tameer’s founder, Omar Ayesh, together with those of hundreds of other investors, was devised and documented by Ahmad AlRajhi and his associates through internal email communications now in evidence. These leaked correspondences set out a structured plan to obtain unlawful control over Tameer Holding, its subsidiaries, and its assets. The material was subsequently reviewed by a senior prosecutor in the State of New York, who indicated that, should it be established that any of the communications traversed servers located within the USA, arrest warrants would be immediately issued against those involved.
AlSalam City represents one of the assets targeted in the takeover scheme. The project covers approximately 220 million square feet. The AlRajhi brothers seized the project in 2014 through a sale to Ahmad AlRajhi at a price of AED 1 per square foot, when its market value was about AED 100 per square foot. After Ayesh submitted the leaked correspondence to the expert committee detailing the plan to seize this project, Tameer produced a so-called “forced exit” agreement at the same nominal value, alleging disputes with the Government of Umm Al Quwain but providing no evidence of such conflict or any circumstances that could justify an inequitable transaction. Comparable plots in the same area are currently offered at roughly AED 170 per square foot. Although Ayesh presented a sworn statement from a government representative confirming that no disputes existed between Tameer and the government, the expert committee nevertheless adopted Al Rajhi’s unsubstantiated version, disregarding the evidence on record.
Tameer Towers, an award-winning Abu Dhabi project with several billion dirhams in first-phase sales, represents another example of the unlawful appropriation of Tameer’s assets. Leaked correspondence revealed that the project was sold to the Al Rajhi brothers at a nominal price with the intent to seize billions of dirhams in proprietary and economic rights belonging to founder Omar Ayesh and other investors. After these documents were submitted to the court-appointed experts, the Al Rajhi brothers restored ownership of the project to Tameer four years after its original seizure, thereby creating a façade of legality intended to conceal the misconduct.
In most jurisdictions, evidentiary deadlines exist to prevent such manipulation, but Dubai’s legal framework allows parties to submit evidence without temporal limitation, a loophole that AlRajhi exploited. A second flaw lies in the experts’ acceptance of fabricated documents as valid, contrary to professional standards in advanced legal systems. The submission and reliance upon falsified records constitute evidence tampering under U.S. Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e), exposing perpetrators to sanctions such as exclusion of evidence and adverse judicial findings, as well as potential criminal liability under 18 U.S.C. §1519 and the UK Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. Reliance on falsified material also breaches International Standards on Auditing (ISA 200 and 240), which require auditors to exercise professional skepticism and disclose material irregularities capable of misleading the court or compromising the fairness of judgment.
The Global Justice Foundation is partnering with several leading international law schools to study the Tameer case, with plans to publish the findings as part of broader efforts to advance justice worldwide.
The Foundation also hopes for a fair and timely resolution to the Tameer case, in keeping with Dubai’s Eight Principles of Governance, which continue to serve as a model of integrity and justice.
With deep respect and faith in Your Highness’s leadership,
Global Justice Foundation
Washington, D.C.