Mo

"Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum tightened his family’s control of the emirate’s largest holding company, the Investment Corporation of Dubai. A decree posted Nov. 19 on Sheikh Mohammed’s Web site listed six members of a new board. It didn’t include Mohammad al-Gergawi, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem or Mohammed Ali Alabbar, three key business aides of the Dubai ruler who are currently named as directors on the investment body’s Web site. Al-Gergawi, Bin Sulayem and Alabbar were at the forefront of a debt-driven building boom in Dubai that collapsed after the onset of the global financial crisis last year. Dubai, the second-biggest of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates, and its government-owned companies borrowed $80 billion to finance the emirate’s transformation into a financial and tourist hub before credit markets froze." (thanks Christopher)