Special Features
DFSA Wins 1st contested case before Regulatory Appeals Committee
The Dubai Financial Services Authority has announced the outcome of a challenge to its decision to withdraw the Licenses and Authorizations of Capital Investment International Limited ("CII"); and the Authorized Individual Status of Husam Al Ameri ("Al Ameri") and Odhaid Al Mansouri ("Al Mansouri") as Licensed Directors of CII. The DFSA had earlier found that CII, Al Ameri and Al Mansouri ("the Directors") were no longer fit and proper to provide financial services in the Dubai International Financial Centre ("DIFC"), but that decision was subject to appeal.The Licenses and Authorizations of CII, and the Directors were originally withdrawn by the DFSA on 26 June 2011 following a hearing before a DFSA Decision Maker. No announcement of that step was taken at the time, according to DFSA’s press release.
On 25 August 2011, CII and the Directors each presented an appeal from the DFSA decision to the Regulatory Appeals Committee of the DFSA (the "RAC"). The appeals were jointly heard by the RAC at a hearing on 28 November 2011 which was held in private subject to a confidentiality order.
On 18 January 2012, the RAC notified the parties in confidence of its decisions in respect of the appeals. The RAC today made a further order requiring those decisions to be placed on the DFSA website.
The RAC unanimously upheld the DFSA’s decisions to withdraw the Licenses and Authorizations of CII, and the Authorized Individual status of the Directors. In essence the decision found that there had been a failure by all three appellants to comply with a number of DFSA requirements including, in the case of CII, the obligation to have systems and controls and effective compliance arrangements; and, in the case of the Directors, the requirement to act with due skill, care and diligence.
CII has not been permitted to transact any investment business since June 2011 and, as far as the DFSA is aware, no clients of CII have suffered any loss as a result of CII’s contraventions.
