Property scam using actress Minissha's name surfaced in Dubai

UAE businessman Ahmad Al Falasi and 11 other investors face a judicial battle against four Indians who allegedly swindled them to the tune of USD 2.45 million with glamorous claims involving the actors in a development, according to a report today.

Al Falasi said he was swayed by the legitimate-sounding lies told by the men behind the Santorini Development, a Greek-style cluster of apartments, villas and hotels on man-made Al Marjan Island off Ras Al Khaimah emirate of the UAE, the Gulf News reported.

The men claimed that the two celebrities were looking to buy property on Santorini development, due to be finished this year. The development, however, remains nothing more than 463,321 square feet of barren desert.

Thousands of other buyers, sellers and developers are also wading through the legal system, attempting to pick up the pieces from the 2008 property crash, the report said.

A Dubai Court reported it dealt with 10 times more real estate cases in the year after the financial crisis hit — 1,541 in 2009 compared to 137 in 2008, or a 1,024 per cent increase. Most of 2009 cases, 75 per cent, were still on-going and were transferred to 2010, it said.

Meanwhile, Al Falasi's courtroom battle continues.

Three of the men behind Stallion Properties — Sanjay Jayantilal Mehta, Naresh Mehta and Ankur Mehta — have been convicted and sentenced to jail for three years by the RAK criminal court for seizing money from investors by trickery.

In 2008, at a glitzy launch party attended by the media, it was alleged that Lamba was hunting for a property on the development and "finalising something very soon", while Reid was not far behind.

This was where Stallion Properties owner Ankur Mehta, along with partners Sosheeta Phillip Desay, Sanjay Jayantilal Mehta and Naresh Mehta, designed glossy material promoting the 560-unit development.

Suspicion set in for some investors around February last year when the building had yet to start. They learnt that the development was built on broken promises and they didn't even own the plots of land for which they were making progress payments.

Questions have now been raised as to whether Stallion Properties even owned the land, with no title deed to show for it. Parties will discuss their dispute with a mediator until a legally-binding settlement is reached.