User:Pegasus/Elyamani Khamis

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Elyamani Khamis
Born January 21, 1957(1957-01-21)
Morocco
Status Fugitive
Occupation Financier
Spouse Dorte Ostergaard
Children Adam (son)

Elyamani Khamis (full name: Mohammed Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani, born January 21, 1957) was a Moroccan financier. He starting doing business in Europe before relocating to Singapore, where he invested heavily in food and entertainment projects. One of these projects was Marina Village—a complex of 19 pubs and restaurants in Marina South which he spent S$40.5 million to develop.

In 1990, Khamis was arrested by Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department based on suspicions that the letters of credit he had used to borrow S$72 million had been fraudulently issued. Although he was later released, he never repaid the loans; in November 1991, he was declared bankrupt for not settling his debt with Standard Chartered Bank. He disappeared in October 1992 and is likely to have left Singapore. In 1992, Singaporean authorities issued a warrant of arrest for him for illegally leaving the country, and he is also being sought by Interpol.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Elyamani Khamis was born in Morocco. He completed his secondary and college education in France, then went to Denmark to study civil engineering in polytechnic.[1] In Denmark he learnt French, English, Danish, Norwegian, and Spanish. In 1982, he finished his studies and founded his first company: FB Santorini SA, registered in Athens, Greece. The modestly profitable company specialised in doing shipping agency work and freight forwarding.[2] Having founded FB Santorini, he began to closely associate himself with rich and powerful people. He claimed that one of his uncles was the Moroccan ambassador to France, and that he was a prince from the Saudi Arabian royal family. A friend of his noted that he made himself look richer than he was by buying new suits and club memberships, and by frequenting popular discotheques.[3]

Khamis' financial problems started in 1983. In April that year, he purchased a large villa for 1.4 million kr from Leif Sinding. He gave Sinding a cheque for 5,000 kr, but it bounced. Khamis' friend Karen Johansen completed the purchase on his behalf. Johansen sold the villa in May 1985 and the subsequent owner received more than 100 letters addressed to Khamis within a year—most of them requests for payment from his creditors. Khamis later opened several grill and bar restaurants in Denmark, but all of them made losses and were eventually closed. In 1984, he moved to Monte Carlo, Monaco and got into trouble again when he paid for some luxury cars using bounced cheques. As a result, the local authorities ordered him and his family to return to Denmark.[4]

In 1986, Khamis met Daniel Van der Voorde, a Belgian businessman. Within days of their first meeting, they went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on a business holiday. In Rio de Janeiro, Khamis purchased jewellery worth 283,000 Swiss francs using Van der Voorde's American Express credit card. Back in Denmark, he repaid Van der Voorde using bounced cheques. Van der Voorde filed a complaint about Khamis in Belgium, accusing him and the jewellery shop's owner—a friend of Khamis'—of fraud. On 15 January 1987, a Belgian court found Khamis guilty and fined him; he did not turn up to pay the fine and was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison. Meanwhile, he was going on shopping sprees with Van der Voorde's friend, Elisabeth Kondrup. These sprees ended after they bought a Rolls Royce car using Kondrup's cheques. Khamis promised to give her 270,000 kr for the car but she received only 100,000 kr, which came from a loan taken out in Khamis' name and hers.[5]

Khamis later met a couple in Porsgrunn, Norway who owned a clothing company. He became interested in doing business in Asia after following them on a business trip to Singapore and Hong Kong in 1987. He bought their company and settled its debts using loans from Norwegian banks. While seeking the loans he was introduced to Torild Aarnes, the then assistant branch manager of Christiania Bank's Porsgrunn branch. Khamis became close friends with Aarnes and her husband, Aarnes Kaafa. In 1988, she issued to Khamis letters of credit that would allow him to borrow up to S$72 million (worth 253 million Norwegian kroner in 1994).[6][7]

Khamis moved to Singapore in 1987. Two years later, he gave the government a cheque for S$1 million, which allowed his family to become permanent residents of Singapore.[1][8] Now he corroborated his claim of royalty using a document written in Arabic and supposedly from his uncle Elyamani Driss, the Minister for Justice in the High Court of Casablanca, Morocco. Translated into English, it read:

“ I declare Mr Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani Mohamed Khamis, being an engineer, born 27.01.1957 in Fes,… is my nephew and come from a noble and respected royal family, whose grandfather was the former King of Yemen and emigrate to Morocco. This is stated in the genealogical tree of his family. Attached is a copy of the genealogical tree.

His father who is Mr Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani Tahar is my brother, graduated from the University of Karaouin in Fes as a Professor. He owns real estate, farming lands, buildings etc in the city of Fes and surrounding area in Tawnat at Hyayna.

His mother Mohamed Badia Bouachrin is the daughter of Mr Mohamed Bouachrin who was the former Minister of Home Affairs under His Majesty King Mohamed Khamis.

His sister Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani Souad, who is a Pharmacist and owned a big pharmacy in Rabaat.

In conclusion, I declare that Mr Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani Mohamed Khamis belong to a royal family, well-known in Morocco, known by his nobility, his intellectual level and his love for his country.[9]

 ”

[edit] Businesses in Singapore

Khamis looked for business partners in Singapore in the same way as he did in Denmark. He visited discotheques such as Chinoiserie at Hyatt Hotel along Scotts Road and restaurants at the Hilton Hotel along Orchard Road, where he met prominent local businessman Ong Beng Seng a number of times while dining. Ong dismissed Khamis as a "gutter rat" and refused to have any dealings with him: "I like to watch the likes of Khamis running around. I only entertain him because he amuses me!"[10]

But Ong's snub did not faze Khamis, who established a foothold in Singapore by taking over existing companies as well as setting up new ones. He made headlines in the local newspapers with his development of Marina Village, which followed his winning a tender to develop two plots of land on Sentosa. In addition, he owned a shipping company and part of a modeling agency. A 1990 press release described him as operating a "large and successful business empire around the world."[1]

[edit] Khamis Shipping

In 1988, Khamis bought Kok Group (Far East) and renamed it Khamis Shipping.[1][11] The company imported specialty foods, alcohol, and commercial gifts from Norway. However, Khamis was dissatisfied with the revenue made and flew to Greece, where he was introduced to shipping magnate George Carras as "Prince Elyamani". Carras later recounted to private investigators, "Elyamani looked like a prince. His behaviour was that of an Arabian prince."[12]

Carras introduced Khamis to Lebanese Khalil El Khoury, who moved to Singapore in 1988 at Khamis' persuasion. Khoury soon made a number of mismanaged deals in the name of Khamis Shipping that caused his relationship with its owner to deteriorate. In one such deal, he sub-chartered three vessels from a London, UK-based company, Mercury, to deliver various cargoes. The cargo on one of them was nearly damaged because he did not give storage instructions; only the intervention of Baltic Shipping, the owner of the vessel, ensured that it was stored correctly. As a result, Mercury incurred losses of about US$250,000. They threatened to take legal action against Khamis Shipping, even though Khoury was not listed as a director or officer of the company in the records of Singapore's Registry of Companies. Khamis managed to avoid litigation by informing Mercury's lawyers that his company had not sub-chartered the vessels. In a 1991 advertisement in The Straits Times, he totally dissociated himself from Khoury, stating, "Khalil El Khoury,… has never been in our [Khamis Shipping's] employment and therefore is not authorised to sign any contracts or act on behalf of the company."[13]

The relationship between Khamis and Carras soured as well after Carras paid Khamis US$300,000 for the deeds to a non-existent property in Brazil. Carras tried to contact Khamis by writing first to an address in Norway and then to Kondrup, but to no avail. He eventually managed to recover part of his money after tracking down Khamis in Singapore. He complained about Khamis to the embassies of Morocco and Saudi Arabia in Athens, Greece, but they replied that Khamis was not a prince and was not related to any royal family in either country.[14]

[edit] Marina Village

In June 1989, Khamis bought three adjacent buildings at the junction of Marina Way and Marina Mall from the Jumabhoy family for S$10.5 million. He named the place Marina Village and spent another S$30 million repairing and upgrading it. The money came from a loan by Standard Chartered Bank.[15]

[edit] Marriage

[edit] Investigations by Singapore and Norway

[edit] Bankruptcy

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Gerry De Silva. "More about Mr Khamis", The Straits Times, 17 March 1991. 
  2. ^ Tan, Dawn (August 1993). "A 'prince' is born", Khameleon: The Elyamani Khamis Story. Singapore: Angsana Books, pp. 20 – 22. ISBN 981-00-4417-8. 
  3. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 22 – 24.
  4. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 23 – 26.
  5. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 28 – 30.
  6. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 30 – 33.
  7. ^ "Convicted Kreditkassen employees win request for appeal", Dagens Naeringsliv, 25 May 1994, p. 19. 
  8. ^ Tan, Khameleon, p. 45.
  9. ^ Tan, Khameleon, p. 54.
  10. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 50 – 53.
  11. ^ Tan, Khameleon, p. 44.
  12. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 34 – 36.
  13. ^ Tan, Khameleon, p. 40 – 45.
  14. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 43 – 44.
  15. ^ Tan, Khameleon, pp. 47 – 49.


Persondata
NAME Khamis, Elyamani
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elkadiri Elhassani Elyamani, Mohammed
SHORT DESCRIPTION Financier
DATE OF BIRTH 21 January 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Morocco
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH