Welly man flees Dubai in Muslim disguise
Tags: Aero Club, Dubai, Escape From Dubai, Herve Jaubert, Seahorse, spy, Stuart, Wellington
| Wednesday 26 August 2009 11:24 am
Jaubert, moments before his escape (Courtesy Herve Jaubert)
The Middle Eastern emirate of Dubai has been a Shangri-la of sorts for rich Palm Beachers in search of exoticism.
Wellington resident Herve Jaubert has a message for them: Go at your own risk!
The 53-year-old former spy knows first-hand.
With members of Dubai’s security force threatening torture, Jaubert used MacGyver techniques for his middle-of-the-night escape from the desert nation where he worked for four years.
Dubai authorities confiscated Jaubert’s passport in 2007. He was accused of ripping off the government-run company that hired him to build personal submarines for billionaire sheiks.
Jaubert denies any impropriety, and denounces Dubai’s justice system as one that’s stacked against suspects like him.
“They were going to keep me for years,” he said. “I just know it. So, I sent my wife and two boys back to Wellington, and I got to work on a plan.”
After preparing for nearly six months, in May 2008 Jaubert checked into a motel close to a quiet beach.
Jaubert, moments before his escape (Courtesy Herve Jaubert)
One night, he put on a scuba outfit. It was shipped from France in small packages over several weeks to avoid raising suspicion.
Then, to make sure no one stopped him as he headed to sea, he covered himself from head-to-toe with a black abaya only worn by ultra-conservative Muslin women.
Jaubert made it to the waters of the Persian Gulf, shed the disguise and swam to the nearest harbor, he said. There, he sabotaged the fuel line of the area’s only military patrol boat, and used a Zodiac to get to a waiting sailboat.
Jaubert traveled for eight days to India, managed to get a new passport from the French consulate and returned to his $1.35 million Aero Club home in Wellington.
He’s now writing a book, Escape from Dubai.
“I had no choice,” he said of his escape. “Without a passport in Dubai, you’re a prisoner. You can’t leave, you can’t work, you can’t rent an apartment or a car, you can’t stay in some hotels. You’re condemned to become homeless.
“In the ‘80s, I worked for a French spy agency in Africa and the Eastern Block. I was stealing secret documents. It was very dangerous, so my escape from Dubai is something I was used to planning back in the day.”
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Jaubert retired from the 007 trade and first landed in Florida in 1999. According to state records Jaubert, who’s also an engineer, then leased a building on Monroe Street in Stuart to build yellow leisure submarines named Seahorses.
“When it comes to building ships, there’s nothing like Florida,” Jaubert told Page2Live when asked why he picked this state. “In Stuart, everything is at your fingertips. The material, the workers, the expertise.”
In 2004, Jaubert said, as his $15 million submarines gained fans among the world’s elite, he was approached by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of the giant corporation Dubai World. The sultan offered to move his operation to the emirate, where Jaubert started a submarine-building subsidiary of the government-backed Dubai World, Exomos.
Within months, Jaubert ran into trouble.
With the nation’s economy reeling, authorities started seeing Exomos as a bottomless money pit, Jaubert said. They accused him of embezzlement from the company. His passport was confiscated.
“They said they paid for equipment that never arrived,” Jaubert said. “Then they asked me to reimburse the startup costs, $800,000. They were trying to blame me for business problems, not criminal activity.”
At one point, two men who described themselves as security officials interrogated Jaubert at a police station. He says one threatened to stick needles into his nose.
He was released unharmed, but he understood he needed to high-tail it outtathere.
“I don’t get why people go to that place (Dubai),” he says. “People here should know that whatever idea they have of Dubai, it’s all false. Anyone who goes there could lose everything, including their freedom.
“Even as a tourist, there’s no reason to go. There’s nothing to do. It’s boring.”
In response to Page2Live’s request for comment, a spokesman at Dubai’s embassy in Washington, D.C., e-mailed that the embassy “is not in a position to comment on the specifics of the case.
“The Constitution outlines freedoms and rights of all citizens, prohibits torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and respects civil liberties of everyone, regardless of nationality.”
In June, a court in the emirate found him guilty and sentenced him to five years in jail.
“I want to clear my name,” Jaubert said. “I want to start building submarines again, but with this story, who’s going to hire me? I’ll fight their system from home.”
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I lived in Dubai for 10 years. There’s no way in hell that you can “swim” from Dubai to the Red Sea. The Red Sea is in-between Egypt / Sudan and Saudi Arabia - the nearest ocean to Dubai is the Persian Gulf.
I have no doubt about the keeping of passports etc., I have heard many true horror stories. Just the part about the Red Sea bothered me, someone needs to check their geography (and yes I did before I commented on this site).
“I don’t get why people go to that place” he says. Maybe the idea of fast, easy money? As for being an ex-spy, most people who were really spys would never admit it. And certainly would not have moved their families to places that the government and the laws are built on shifting sands!
The story does not state that Mr. Jaubert “swam” to the Red Sea. It specifically states,
“Jaubert made it to the waters of the Persian Gulf, shed the disguise and swam underwater to the nearest harbor… There, he sabotaged the fuel line of the area’s only military patrol boat, and used a Zodiac to get to a waiting sailboat.”
He sailed to India, which is quite possible.
I have moved with my family from West Palm Beach to Dubai and been living here for the past five years. Dubai is a fantastic, safe, and fun place to be. Locals have great respect for foreigners, especially Americans. Mr. Jaubert has obviously gotten in trouble with the law and now looking for excuses. Having lived here, I vote to completely discredit his story!
Shenanigans!?!
The story sounded silly to me, then I saw that he was writing a book and that explained it.
You’d think someone who builds submarines wouldn’t have to order SCUBA equipment. You’d think he’d have some lying about for use in the normal course of his job.
And for that matter, if this guy builds submarines for a living, why couldn’t he just leave in one of those?
There’s an article in ‘Fast Company’ magazine that goes on in great length about Dubai’s ‘downturn’ and the serious consequences foreign workers face getting laid-off while there. Some workers abandon everything and take drastic measures to avoid being imprisoned.
While Mr. Jaubert’s story is pretty wild, who’s to say it isn’t so?
CT - they changed the story - this morning it said “The Red Sea”.
I’m sure that the truth lies somewhere between Jaubert’s story and those who assert that Dubai is a paradise that is welcoming to foreigners.
I don’t trust that ANY place in that part of the world is “safe” in terms of respecting people’s human and civil and legal rights. So do I believe the stories about Mr. Jaubert’s “spy” exploits? Not entirely; I’ll withhold judgment for now. But do I believe that it would be perfectly safe to go visit Dubai? Absolutely not.
He says that the authorities were after him in Dubai for his business activities. He had me until that point, but since he sabotaged the military boat, he did commit a crime. Why should we feel good for a guy that considers himself an action hero, when in reality he was probably just another guy who thought he would go over there and make it rich. Who is to say he did nothing wrong when The Palm Beach Post is trying to make him an innocent victim in all of this
Dubai is a great place to enslave people and treat women like trash. We should all strive to be like them!
Who took the pictures of James Bond, in both of his costumes, prior to the great escape?
Dubai is a God forsaken shit hole with nothing going for it but lots of cash.
Yup I been to Dubai on 72 hrs. liberty while stationed in Bahrain. Yes a leg up on Bahrain but over the long haul not a place I’d like to stay. There are lots of pretty ladies though hangin out in a many of the nice hotels (and proly some not so nice hotels also).
Dubai, Las Vegas… both s*#t holes that should never exist except for gambling and corruption. I refuse to go to either place for any reason.
Z when the police themselves threaten you to torture, and confiscate your passport on made up charges, disabling one of their boat is self defense, the crime is to torture people, not to escape from kidnapers. But it is always easier to blame what people would do to get away from these dark ages countries from the comfort of your florida home.
Dont make the mistake that your consulate would help you either, we are small potatoes against huge economic, politic and military interest’s.
I know 2 US citizen that are currently detained with no charges.
I got in the Arabian sea, not the Red sea.
Why risk disarming the military boat, why not just leave. Clearly it would be more risky to physically disarm the military than to just slip away. Carefull about being fast and loose with the facts, someone in Oprah’s book club learned that lesson when his best seller got recalled and he lost all of his royalities. Oprah, the publisher and the writer were disgraced!
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Did Thanos say he was a spy as well to his hooker girlfriend?
I read that in another one of these Page 2 articles. Seems like all the spys live in West Palm?
Or maybe all the cons that are trying to get laid tell people they are spies.
He had me until the disabling the military boat part. If the boat was so empty that no one was on it to notice him disabling it, then why go through the trouble? And why didn’t he disable the radio while he was at it? Does Dubai only have ONE military boat? No military planes or hovercraft orradar or GPS? I mean, what kind of boat are we talking about here, a 22ft. Boston Whaler or something? THAT’S the part that sounds a little fishy to me.
The sailboat to India thing is screwy, too. When making a getaway as a suspected criminal, one would think that the transportation would be motorized, fast, and not an 8-day pleasure cruise subject to the unpredictability of wind.
Now we are also supposed to believe the Indians have no border or document security either nor can an ex-CIA member contact the American embassy for help once in a friendlier country. The French have not always been so good to us.
This story has more holes than a slice of Swiss, but it sounds entertaining enough. I just wish the PBPost wouldn’t report it as “news” because there are clear problems with story verification on this one. Sorry Herve–it just don’t all add up.
Seems to me, if I fully believed him, that I might omit some things like sabotaging a military boat. Oh the ego does love to be stroked. I believe his situation and I admire his daring escape but I won’t be buying his book.
Let me retract the ex-CIA part– I saw in the story where he worked as a FRENCH spy, not an American one.
Still, spies who stole secret documents usually don’t fess up or reveal their identity since they could still have enemies who would know a) his name ; b) his family status (married, kids); C)where he lived (Aero Club–not many homes there), and; d) how much his house cost or was worth. Wouldn’t take long for a spy seeking vengeance to track him down and exact revenge with all that personal info in the paper. Plus spies are always called back for jobs–if he was detained, it was because he was suspected of being a spy, not “just out of the blue” or based on a business dispute–he was stealing documents again and somebody got pissed.
Besides, the Post should have been tipped initially when the story said he builds “yellow submarines”.
The UAE is not Florida, police are everywhere, you can’t jump and go in your boat like that, you need a permit everytime you go out the marina. i escaped from a remote part of the country, but there was only one 40 ft central console high speed police boat around. my life was at stake there, i took every precautions to not get caught, i needed to make sure no boats would be chasing me the next morning on my way to international waters. i did not take any risk, this was not a frigate, ok, a small boat in an empty police station, actually it was fun. and since when did you ever see a frogman being caught. this is one of the safest covert ops.
i have been doing that before for a living, this was not table conversation, sneaking in and out is best in the sail boat / rubber boat combination , any where, any country, not a power boat, listen to the pro, beside do you know how much fuel you would need for a 1300 miles voyage.
India was the first friendly country outside the arab sphere, you dont want to escape in Saudi, or Iran without a passport, this is suicidal. all these middle eastern countries share the same polica data. The UAE wont comment or deny my little trip on a sail boat, and for a reason, even more embarrassing for them, i bought my sail boat from the brother of the president under a fake name. one more proof,since my escape every boater in the UAE must install in his boat a tracking device, what ever the size , so the police can track everybody on the water. The press would not publish any of this if it was not verified, i provided to the reporters evidence to support my accounts. usually former covert operatives do not reveal themselves, i agree, but real life events caught me and exposed me and i felt the lies about Dubai had to be revealed.
and so what i was a spy, i am not going to reveal any state secrets, nor that anyone would ever find out what i was involved in then.
You believe this story and I want to talk to you about a bridge I have for sale.
BS all the way. Total set up for book and movie deal….
Takes pictures of himself before he sneaks away dressed as a woman….on and on.
Only problem is that his 15 mins of fame will be watched with great interest by those he is defaming.
Holy Moly: No covert opp would ever write like this idiot. Post #25
If spys are as dumb as this poster in #25 it explains why there were no weapons of mass destruction.
There goes the book deal. AND no talk show will book him either based on his ramblings.
Good laugh on a hot afternoon.
Herve,
If you were a spy, why would you tell everyone?
First it is the reporters who revealed I was a former operative, not me, back in 2005 as i was building submarines in Dubai. Second, why does it matter, i left the service 15 years ago!!!! i dont reveal anything about what i did or anything on my government, and from time to time you see former CIA operatives writing books, going on TV, and they talk about their job. At last, it is to explain what it takes to get out of this place, there are hundreds of managers, entrepreneurs who are trapped with no way out, i am the only one, on the records who managed to escape without a passport, i could because of my background, just think a minute of what it takes to travel without a passport. i had to go to the extremes and used my skills to get out, you can talk all day on how to do it between the olives and the cheese, what i did is the real deal , proven, and it worked, any other way is a ticket to prison. Mr clown is a clown, he knows nothing, he is probably an arab posting here anyways, they will be watching, oh la la i am so scared, brrrrr, and yes, there will be a talk show, and a big one, it is in the making as we speak. as of defamation, it is the otherway around mr clown, they defamed me, falsly accused me and threatened me to be tortured. These people may use digital technology and drive fancy cars they have their mind still in the middle ages, they should go back to the sands, ride camels and eat dattes. to me it is not about a book, it is to expose that Dubai is not what it claims, it is a trap, a place where you can lose everything there is to lose.
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My son is in school w/ his son and I know Helen Jaubert. She is wonderful person and spoke of the real fear she had for her husband and children. She was relieved to be out of that country. She was very involved in bringing to light the lack of women’s rights in Dubai and found that the abuse that women were subjected to in that country apalling. I have no reason to doubt their story.
[...] Palm Beach & South Florida report & luminary headlines | Jose … [...]
[...] Palm Beach & South Florida report & luminary headlines | Jose … [...]
[...] Palm Beach & South Florida report & luminary headlines | Jose … [...]
[...] Wellington submarine builder Herve Jaubert, a former French spy who donned Muslim garb to flee the Middle Eastern emirate of Dubai last year, is suing the country’’s largest corporation. [...]
[...] submarine builder Herve Jaubert, a former French spy who donned Muslim garb to flee the Middle Eastern emirate of Dubai last year, [...]
Who took those photos “moments before his escape?” Not one photo, but apparently two. Also, what kind of rebreather is that?
SG
I’ve read and reread some of the comments and frankly can understand most of the skepticism of the writers on the factuality of the story, in today’s day and age it is hard to imagine such things happening. Honestly only those who have been through a similar situation can empathize with Herve Jaubert. Sure he did live the life of a mini sheikh himself when the going was good, but yes there is that eventuality of charges being “framed” against you to get back their “initial” investments, when they lose interest in the venture or need some quick bucks, Seems like a general practice out there. Once his book and hopefully the movie is out scores of similar stories will tumble out of the closet. he had the courage and the expetise to save himself, so hats off to him -