Source: Sentry
Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is closely linked to a $1.7 million property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to real estate records uncovered by The Sentry.1 The brutal RSF militia have been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023, leading to the deaths of more than 100,000 people. 2 Hemedti has been sanctioned by the United States, which has accused the RSF of genocide in Western Sudan’s Darfur region. 3 His linkages to multiple properties stands in stark contrast to the homelessness the war has inflicted on Sudan: 12 million people—a quarter of Sudan’s population—had fled their homes as of January 2026.4
RSF militia. AP Images. BOTTOM: Map of Dubai showing the approximate
location of properties linked to Hemedti.
In March 2020, Hemedti bought three apartments in Dubai’s eastern suburbs, close to the UAE’s Al Minhad military airbase. The properties were first bought in his own name and then sold in July 2022 to Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services (“Prodigious”), registered in the UAE. 5 The past and present directors and owners of Prodigious are closely linked to other companies sanctioned for their connections to the RSF. Prodigious is currently 100% owned by Abo Zer Abdelnabi Habiballa Ahmmed, also known as Abozer Habib. 6 The US Treasury sanctioned Habib in 2025 as the owner of the Capital Tap group, which included companies that provided money and military equipment to the RSF. 7 Former owners and directors of Prodigious—
namely, Emirati businessman Naser Helal Abdulla Helal Alhammadi and Sudanese national Islam Badreldin Mohamed Abdalla—also used to own companies in the
Capital Tap group. 8 Prodigious, Habib, Alhammadi, and Abdalla did not respond to requests for comment
We estimate the three properties to be worth just under $1 million.9 Prodigious also owns a commercial property in Dubai, worth about $670,000.10 The tenant of that property was an interior design company formerly owned by Alhammadi and Mazin Fadlalla. Fadlalla’s role as a suspected frontman for the RSF was revealed by The Sentry in 2025. 11 Between 2023 and 2025, Prodigious earned at least $80,000 per year in rent from this portfolio.12
The Sentry found the properties in a database of leaked Dubai property records from 2020 and 2022 first obtained by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), an American non-profit organization. An investigative journalism outfit, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), helped obtain information that confirmed the current role played by Prodigious.
The property purchases shed further light on the RSF’s relationship with the UAE. The UAE adamantly denies supporting the RSF.13 However, this investigation into the property portfolio linked to Hemedti is the third Sentry report that reveals the intricate connections between the Dagalo family, the RSF, and the UAE. The first publication detailed how RSF front companies,including those run by Alhammadi, Abdalla and Habib, operated out of Dubai. 14 The second revealed that the Emirati businessman supplying Colombian mercenaries to train the RSF is the business partner of the UAE’s
most senior bureaucrat.15 Investigations by others have found that the UAE supplies weapons and drones to the RSF, while smuggled gold flows in the other direction.16 Emirati support for the RSF stems from the very top, including ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and his brothers, Shiekh Mansour and Sheikh Tahnoun, according to the New York Times.17
Dubai’s property market
The UAE’s property market has attracted dirty money due to a ‘few questions asked’ approach by real estate agents and lawyers, which allows buyers to transfer ill-gotten gains into clean assets relatively easily.18 In 2024, undercover reporters posing as potential property buyers were told they could pay in “bags of cash,” and that they would face “zero question(s)” about the source of their funds.19 Journalists have located properties owned by corrupt politicians, drug traffickers, money launderers, terrorist financiers, and individuals sanctioned for helping Syria’s chemical weapons program during President Assad’s regime.20
Despite this reputation, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) took the UAE off its so-called “grey list,” which includes jurisdictions whose anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes are deemed to have strategic deficiencies. When removing the UAE from the list, FATF cited increased numbers of suspicious transaction reports from sectors such as the real estate industry as one area of improvement.21 Between 2013 and 2018, the UAE’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) received just three suspicious transaction reports from real estate companies.22 In contrast, from 2020 to 2023, the FIU received over 2,000 Real Estate Activity Reports, which are triggered by cash or crypto
Can you help?
The Sentry believes that the Dagalo family may have significant property holdings in the UAE, possibly held via front companies. We appeal to members of
the public to contact us securely via the methods detailed on our website: https://thesentry.org/shareinfo/
purchases.23 However, there is little evidence that the UAE has launched a commensurate number of probes into properties potentially bought with dirty money, despite FATF noting in 2022 that the UAE had committed to “demonstrating a sustained increase in effective investigations and prosecutions of different types of ML [Money Laundering] cases consistent with UAE’s risk profile.”24 In 2024, Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption watchdog, investigated a sample of 100 politically exposed persons (PEPs) whose ownership of Dubai property was exposed by C4ADS in 2018. TI found that at least 58 still owned property in the city.25 The UAE has also not extradited infamous suspects who seemingly control property in Dubai, such as the Gupta brothers, wanted by South Africa for ‘state capture,’ Isabel dos Santos, whose extradition is sought by Angola for defrauding the country of $219 million, or Daniel Kinehan, an alleged drug smuggler from Ireland.26
Recommendations
Sanctions. Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services is already blocked in the US under the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s 50% rule, as the US has previously sanctioned the company’s sole owner, Abo Zer Abdelnabi Habiballa Ahmmed. However, US authorities should specifically identify Prodigious as a blocked entity and add the company to the Specially Designated Nationals & Blocked Persons list for clarity and maximum effectiveness. Authorities in the European Union, United Kingdom, and other jurisdictions should investigate and, if appropriate, sanction Prodigious and its sole owner Abo Zer Abdelnabi Habiballa Ahmmed.
Enhanced due diligence. In all jurisdictions, and especially in the UAE, financial institutions, real estate professionals, and lawyers should conduct enhanced due diligence on customers and transactions potentially
involving members of the Dagalo family and Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services. These institutions and persons should in particular investigate any payments to or from Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services, in case the payments breach US sanctions imposed on Hemedti in 2025.
Investigating real estate transactions in the UAE. Law enforcement agencies should investigate all properties bought by Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services, the Dagalo family, and other related PEPs to verify the source of funds.
Increased FATF evaluations of real estate. FATF members should focus on real estate during the upcoming 2026 mutual evaluation of the UAE’s progress on enforcement of money laundering and terrorist financing laws. If further progress in this area is not observed, then FATF should place the UAE back on the grey list.
Endnotes
1 The Sentry analysis of C4ADS Sandcastles Database, 2020 and 2022.
2 Natasha Booty, Farouk Chothia, and Wedaeli Chibelushi, “A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan,” BBC News, 13 November 2025, available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjel2nn22z9o.
3 US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Paramilitary Leader, Weapons Supplier, and Related Companies,” Press Release, January 7, 2025, available at: https://home.treasury.
gov/news/press-releases/jy2772.
4 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “Sudan Situation,” available
at: https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/sudansituation (last ac-
cessed January 27, 2025). World Health Organization, “Sudan Health Data Overview,” available at: https://data.who.int/countries/729
(last accessed November 20, 2025).
5 The Sentry review of UAE property contracts and invoices.
6 Summary of Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services corporate data, February 12, 2025, reviewed by The Sentry.
7 US Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Paramilitary Leader, Weapons Supplier, and Related Companies,” Press Release, January 7, 2025, available at: https://home.treasury.
gov/news/press-releases/jy2772
8 Summary of Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services corporate data, February 12, 2025, reviewed by The Sentry.
Summary of Capital Tap Holding corporate data, December 6, 2024, reviewed by The Sentry.
Summary of Capital Tap General Trading corporate data, January 20, 2025, reviewed by The Sentry.
9 The Sentry analysis of C4ADS Sandcastles Database, 2020 and 2022, and comparable property valuations available online.
10 The Sentry review of UAE property contracts and invoices. The Sentry estimated the value of the property by comparing it to the December 2024 sale price of a commercial property in the same building of an almost identical size.
11 The Sentry review of UAE property contracts and invoices. Summary of a United Arab Emirates company’s corporate data, January 9, 2025, reviewed by The Sentry.
The Sentry, “The RSF’s Business Network in the UAE,” October 2025, available at: https://thesentry.org/reports/
sudan-rsf-businessnetwork-in-the-uae/.
investigation/dubai-uncovered-data-leak-exposes-how-criminals-of-
ficials-and-sanctioned-politicians-poured-money-into-dubai-real-es-
tate.
“Sandcastles: Tracing Sanctions Evasion Through Dubai’s Luxury Real Estate Market,” June 2018, available at: https://c4ads.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Sandcastles-Report.pdf.
“Adham Husayn Tabaja,” OCCRP, May 2024, available at: https://www.occrp.org/interactives/dubai-unlocked/en/#6/adham-husayn-tabaja
“Mudalal and Imad Khuri,” OCCRP, May 2024, available at: https://www.occrp.org/interactives/dubai-unlocked/en/#110/mudalal-and-imad-khuri
21 FATF, “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring,” February 23, 2024, available at: https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/High-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/Increased-monitoring-february-2024.html#%2520UnitedArabEmirates (last accessed November 26, 2025).
22 FATF, “Mutual Evaluation Report: United Arab Emirates,” Table 5.1, p.129, 2020, available at: https://www.fatf-gafi.org/
content/dam/fatf-gafi/mer/Mutual-Evaluation-Report-United-Arab-
Emirates-2020.pdf.coredownload.pdf.
23 United Arab Emirates, “Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment Report,” 2024, p.48, available at: https://www.namlcftc.gov.ae/media/jvejlwgq/nra-annual-report-eng-r13.pdf
United Arab Emirates, “goAML Web Submission Guide – Real Estate Activity Report,” July 20, 2022, p.4, available at: https://www.uaefiu.gov.ae/media/sr2lwuo2/7-goaml-web-real-estate-activity-re-port-v1-1-20-07-2022.pdf.
24 FATF, “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring,” March 2022, available at: https://www.fatf-gafi.org/content/fatf-gafi/en/pub-lications/High-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/Increased-monitoring-march-2022.htm (last accessed December 15, 2025).
25 “Unfinished business: Despite FATF money laundering list exit, UAE has much to prove,” Transparency International, April 23, 2024, available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/news/
money-laundering-list-exit-uae-much-to-prove.
26 Ed Caesar, “The Cocaine Kingpin Living Large in Dubai,” The New Yorker, October 20, 2025, available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/27/the-cocaine-kingpin-living-large-in-dubai.
12 The Sentry analysis of UAE property contracts and invoices.
13 Natasha Booty, Tom Bateman, and Barbara Plett Usher, “US
calls for international action to cut weapons supply to Sudan paramilitaries,” BBC News, November 13, 2025, available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c17p1nwy7q8o.
14 The Sentry, “The RSF’s Business Network in the UAE,” October 2025, available at: https://thesentry.org/reports/sudan-rsf-businessnetwork-in-the-uae/.
15 The Sentry, “Sudan Mercenaries Linked to Business Partner of Top UAE Bureaucrat,” November 2025, available at: https://thesen-try.org/reports/sudan-mercenaries-rsf-uae-bureaucrat/.
16 Jared Malsin, Benoit Faucon, and Robbie Gramer, “How U.A.E. Arms Bolstered a Sudanese Militia Accused of Genocide,” Wall Street
Journal, October 28, 2025, available at: https://www.wsj.com/world/how-u-a-e-arms-bolstered-a-sudanese-militia-accused-of-genocide-781b9803 Declan Walsh, “The Gold Rush at the Heart of a Civil War,” New York Times, December 11, 2024, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/world/africa/sudan-gold-rush-heart-civil-war.html.
17 Declan Walsh and Tariq Panja, “The Sheikh Who Conquered Soccer and Coddles Warlords,” New York Times, June 29, 2025, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/world/middlee-ast/emirates-manchester-city-soccer-sudan.html.
18 Matthew Kupfer and Eiliv Frich Flydal, “Dubai Uncovered: Data Leak Exposes How Criminals, Officials, and Sanctioned Politicians Poured Money Into Dubai Real Estate,” OCCRP, May 3, 2022, available at: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/dubai-uncovered-da-ta-leak-exposes-how-criminals-officials-and-sanctioned-politi-cians-poured-money-into-dubai-real-estate.
19 OCCRP and E24, “How Dirty Money Finds a Home in Dubai Real Estate,” May 14, 2024, available at: https://www.occrp.org/interactives/dubai-unlocked/en
20 Jessica Purkiss, Fahim Abed, Kevin G. Hall, and Andreas Cosma, “Destination Dubai: As the U.S. Was Rebuilding Afghanistan, Contractors Snapped up Properties in the UAE,” OCCRP, May 14, 2024, available at: https://www.occrp.org/en/project/dubai-un-locked/destination-dubai-as-the-us-was-rebuilding-afghanistan-con-tractors-snapped-up-properties-in-the-uae
Matthew Kupfer and Eiliv Frich Flydal, “Dubai Uncovered: Data Leak Exposes How Criminals, Officials, and Sanctioned Politicians Poured Money Into Dubai Real Estate,” OCCRP, May 3, 2022, available at: https://www.occrp.org/en/
Matthew Kupfer and Eiliv Frich Flydal, “Dubai Uncovered: Data Leak Exposes How Criminals, Officials, and Sanctioned Politicians Poured Money Into Dubai Real Estate,” OCCRP, May 3, 2022, available at: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/dubai-uncovered-da-ta-leak-exposes-how-criminals-officials-and-sanctioned-politi-cians-poured-money-into-dubai-real-estate.
