Dubai courtroom lifts journey ban on British-Pakistani transport tycoon but to settle UK case

A UAE-based father and son discovered chargeable for deceit and conspiracy in a UK fraud case have had their journey ban lifted by a Dubai courtroom, in line with paperwork seen completely by Middle East Eye.

In 2024, British residents Muhammad Tahir Lakhani and Muhammad Ali Lakhani had been discovered chargeable for deceit on the commercial court in London, which offers with enterprise disputes, in respect to false representations made to safe a $45m mortgage for Astir Maritime, an organization finally owned by them and one other member of the family. 

The British-Pakistani father and son admitted to creating up excuses as to why they’d not paid again lenders. 

They haven’t settled the case, and in 2025 the United Arab Emirates issued a journey ban for the daddy and son.

But following a request made by the Lakhanis, that ban was lifted on 26 August, in line with the Dubai courtroom paperwork seen by MEE.

While the Lakhanis advised the Dubai courtroom they wanted to be free to journey as a way to conduct enterprise correctly and meet their money owed, lenders to the household are understood to be anxious that they’ll flee to Pakistan, the place the household has its origins.

Muhammad Tahir Lakhani, who was born in Karachi, didn’t reply to Middle East Eye’s request for remark and didn’t reply when requested if he meant to go away the UAE.

The household’s Dubai-based authorized consultant didn’t reply to MEE’s questions.

Dubai-based transport enterprise

The British courtroom heard in 2024 that the mortgage for Astir Maritime was allegedly required to help the ship-recycling enterprise throughout a downturn in commerce and the market.

The firm is one in every of a portfolio of UAE-based transport and ship recycling companies linked to the British-Pakistani household, which has been largely primarily based in Dubai for many years. 

‘The elimination of the journey ban is of grave concern and contradictory’

– Source accustomed to Lakhani case

The cash was meant for use to purchase ageing vessels that might be offered to shipyards and damaged down into elements.

The case towards Astir Maritime for fraud was brought by lenders led by London-based agency Njord Partners Sma-Seal LP. The case has not been settled and the Lakhanis have remained in Dubai.

The UK Home Office advised Middle East Eye it couldn’t touch upon particular person instances.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office appeared to confer with the Lakhanis when it stated that it had not been approached for consular help however stood able to be of help.

Geraldine McCafferty, Britain’s new ambassador to the UAE, is conscious of the state of affairs, sources near the case advised MEE.

Money owed to lenders

“The removal of the travel ban is of grave concern and contradictory,” a supply accustomed to the case advised MEE, referring to lenders – together with pension fund managers – owed cash, in addition to to broader questions of public curiosity.

“The Lakhanis have argued that restrictions forestall them from arranging their monetary affairs and settling the judgement they owe their collectors.

“Yet while those same travel bans were in force, they paid $5m to settle separate enforcement proceedings and subsequently offered AED 15-20m ($4m-$5.5m) as a lump sum settlement in relation to outstanding claims from the 2024 High Court ruling.”

‘He [Tahir Lakhani] has performed a essential position in advocating the UAE as an important zonal and international centre for maritime commerce and logistics’

– Thrive Global

This, the supply stated, contradicted the suggestion that journey restrictions put in place to safeguard towards the Lakhanis leaving the UAE had prevented them from arranging their funds.

As businessmen working firms which have a world presence, the Lakhanis have argued in any other case.

The 2024 judgement towards the Dubai-based household follows a 2020 case during which UK courts issued worldwide freezing orders towards Muhammad Tahir Lakhani and his sons after one other set of lenders to a number of the household’s ship recycling companies accused them of fraud.

During that case, the court heard that Tahir Lakhani was an “internationally recognised visionary shipping executive” who had arrange Dubai Trading Agency, the “first company based in the Middle East to start buying ships for recycling”. 

The lenders had been awarded $77m by the British courtroom in 2020. In 2025, the Lakhanis struck a deal that left buyers with a $5m restoration in a settlement that Tahir Lakhani described as “amicable”.

Shadow fleets and Emirati management

In 2024, the Financial Times identified a Lakhani-owned agency as being concerned in Russia’s “shadow fleet” – the ships utilized by Moscow to evade western sanctions.

In a press release to the FT, Tahir Lakhani, who was described by the newspaper as a controversial determine in transport, stated he “never had any involvement or facilitated the breach of any sanctions”. 

Born in 1962 in Karachi, the household patriarch is described by Greek-American media mogul Ariana Huffington’s expertise firm Thrive Global as having performed a “critical role in advocating the UAE as an essential zonal and global centre for maritime trade and logistics”. 

‘Mayfair means cash’: A stroll by the Gulf elite’s favorite a part of London

Read More »

Tahir says he performed tennis for Pakistan within the Davis Cup – the Thrive Global biography calls him the “youngest tennis player ever to feature for his country” on the worldwide match – and obtained his begin within the transport enterprise as a supervisor in a Pakistani ship recycling yard owned by a household good friend.

Tahir married his spouse Uneza in 1985, inheriting a stake in a Dubai-based buying and selling enterprise from her father. The couple renamed the corporate Dubai Trading Agency and by the late Nineteen Nineties it was, in line with the FT, one of many greatest ship recyclers on the planet.

At that time, the agency stated it was shopping for and promoting, for money, over 100 ageing vessels a yr. While Tahir lived in London together with his household from 2000-2009, it’s Dubai that has been his dwelling, and he was vice chairman of the UAE Shipping Association till 2019.

In March, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Jim Shannon asked if the Home Office may assess the potential impression of the UK-UAE Illicit Finance Partnership Agreement on the Lakhani case.

Signed in 2021, the British authorities heralded the bilateral settlement, saying it could result in the UK and UAE ramping up the “targeting of those financing terrorism and serious and organised crime gangs as part of a landmark new partnership”.

Responding to Shannon, Security Minister Dan Jarvis repeated the advantages of the settlement and stated the Home Office was “not able to comment on or make assessments regarding individual cases”.