Michigan man sought in failed investments

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DETROIT, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A Michigan businessman indicted for his role in a $26 million loan scandal is linked to more than $100 million in failed business deals in Qatar, officials say.

Abdulla al-Jufairi, 47, left the Detroit area in 2006 before a federal grand jury indicted him for defrauding the government for millions of dollars in loans for gas stations, The Detroit News reported Monday.

He was among five men accused of arranging three bad loans from the Small Business Administration, allegedly by faking invoices and supplying faulty documents to inflate the value of the stations.

A loan officer, Patrick Harrington, is serving 10 years in prison for his role in the deals with al-Jufairi and dozens of other bad loans.

After leaving the United States, al-Jufairi became involved with a proposed office tower and a development on a man-made island in Qatar.

A Caribbean-based investment company sued him this year in London to recover $30 million it invested with him in the office tower project. A British court in May ordered al-Jufairi to pay the company $42 million.

A British investment house is seeking $75 million from him for failed loans in the island development project, while a Kuwaiti investment company claims al-Jufairi owes it $40 million from another project in Qatar.