source Arabian Business
Dubai World has filed a lawsuit against former employee Herve Jaubert in the United States federal court, the company said on Tuesday.
The company accuses him of fraud, theft and related charges linked to his time as CEO of Dubai World subsidiary Exomos, established in 2004 to design and manufacture submarines.
The lawsuit has been launched in Florida because Jaubert chose to flee there from the UAE instead of signing an agreement he had made with Dubai World to repay money he stole from the company, Dubai World added in a statement.
"Dubai World is fully confident that the US court will come to the same conclusion as a Dubai court did in April 2009: that Mr Jaubert misrepresented his ability to design and build submarines to obtain his position as CEO of Exomos, and then used that position to steal millions of dollars from Dubai World," the statement added.
Jaubert, a former French special agent was convicted in June in absence in a Dubai court of defrauding the company out of millions of dirhams – charges he denies.
Jaubert was sentenced to five years in jail and fined AED14m by Dubai Criminal Court at a hearing in June at which he was not present.
The court was told that Jaubert’s company, Seahorse Submarines, had bought equipment worth AED11.8m for Exomos, the submarine division of Dubai World, but that it did not all arrive.
Jaubert had a contract with Dubai World to build two submarines, but prosecutors told the court that when the vessels were delivered they were incomplete and faulty.
He wrote to Dubai World and agreed to settle the matter by paying an initial AED3m, but he fled the country before handing over any money, the court heard.
Last month, Jaubert told Arabian Business that he escaped from Dubai aboard a rubber dingy and dressed in a burqa to evade police using skills he developed as a spy.
The former French naval officer claimed then that he was not worried about being tracked down to face his five-year prison sentence because he could prove his innocence.
Jaubert said he decided to flee the country last year after his passport was confiscated by police and he was fired by Dubai World.
He said he left from a beach in Fujairah after sabotaging the only coast guard boat in the area to make sure no one could follow him.
Jaubert said he spent six hours aboard the rubber dingy before meeting his friend, who had sailed his boat into international waters, and the pair headed to India on a journey that took eight days.
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