Crypto Millionaire Faces 25 Years in Hellhole Dubai Jail for ‘Shopping Trip’

Waseem Khan, a millionaire British Crypto investor, was placed under arrest in Dubai on charges of drug dealing and manipulating crime proceeds—all because of an ill-fated “shopping trip.”

Knewz.com has learned that Khan was in police custody for over two months, with arrangements for necessary legal representation having taken a heavy toll on his finances.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Khan relocated to Dubai a few years ago, living in a fourth-floor apartment in the upscale Jumeirah Village Circle.

The trouble began when the wealthy crypto investor wired $5,700 to a friend back in the U.K., in return for approximately 15,000 dirhams that were to be handed to the millionaire for a shopping trip.

Shortly after an individual handed him the money, police stormed his Dubai residence and arrested Khan—while “laughing and joking” about the grim possibilities that awaited him.

Recounting the seemingly abrupt circumstances of his arrest, the crypto millionaire said:

“I went to the gym around 7pm and I did a two-hour session, and I just came home and cooked some food. And as I was about to eat, the security knocked on my door… Obviously I thought he wanted to speak to me, so I opened the door and the next minute, six police just came through the door, which smacked me on my head.”

“They’ve handcuffed me without even saying a word, and they said, ‘We know everything’ and ‘You’re wrong and we’re right’ and ‘You’re under arrest,’” Khan continued.

“It was frightening because, obviously, I didn’t do anything wrong. I was thinking, ‘Why am I being treated like a criminal.’”

“At the same time, one of the officers said, ‘You’re going to get the death penalty, you’re going to get 25 years.’ And they were just laughing and joking about it,” Khan added.

He further stated that a senior police officer at the station told him that he was innocent and assured him a swift release.

However, he ended up spending the next two and a half months in a crowded detention cell with “killers, rapists, and drug lords.”

“When I was arrested, they asked me all the questions. One of the officers, the head of CID who arrested me, said, ‘Don’t worry. you’re going to be released in one hour, we know you’re innocent, you had nothing to do with this,’” Khan told the media about his experiences.

“So obviously I took his word and he said, ‘They’re just going to take your fingerprints, just go through this door and you’ll be out in one hour,’” he recounted.

“I went through this door and I ended up in a whole prison cell with 200 people sleeping on the floor and just a bad smell… I said, ‘What’s this, you said I was going to get out,’ and they just closed the door behind me and left me in there,” he added.

Khan described his detention center as a “hellhole” prison, “the sort of thing you see in the movies.”

“There were killers, rapists and drug lords – people who had done nasty, nasty crimes. There were some of the worst people in the world in there… Every day there were people picking on you. The living conditions were horrible,” Khan said in his statement.

“If there were small problems, you’d have to fight over it. There were a number of times were I came close to nearly physically fighting people.”

“There was awful food, cold showers, the toilets were mouldy, it just stunk. The phones were awful and the prison guards were awful as well… I didn’t even think I’d get out, just because of how bad my luck was in there,” Khan added.

The crypto investor is currently prohibited from leaving the country as his criminal trial continues, due to the nature of the charges against him.

Furthermore, he has had to liquidate many of his assets – including his cars – to pay for the necessary legal costs. However, his lawyers still cannot give him absolute hope of emerging victorious in the case.

“I am happy that I’ve been released on bail, but I’m also really worried as my lawyers have said, ‘This is Dubai, anything can happen here,’” Khan said in a statement, per The Daily Express.

“[His legal counsel] don’t want to give me false hope,” he said, adding that while his lawyers believe he has a good chance of defending himself, he is not convinced of the fairness of the local court system.

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