You don't play shell games with a swindler.

Dubai firm accused of breaking pledge to divest itself of U.S. port operations

By Doreen Hemlock
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 14 2006

The weeks-long saga of Dubai Ports World's purchase of operations in Miami and five other U.S. seaports took another turn Monday, when the company's Fort Lauderdale nemesis publicized a private e-mail and charged the note shows the Arab company has no intention of selling its U.S. assets.

Eller & Co., now a partner with DP World in a Miami operation after DP bought out a British firm last week, shared an e-mail that said the Arab company's sale of U.S. assets "would probably take a while."

The e-mail from Robert Scavone, a vice president for the port company now owned by DP World, also told managers in Miami to assume for now "ownership … is not going to change."

Eller's lawyer Michael N. Kreitzer said Monday the e-mail proves the Arab company has no plans to meet Thursday's pledge to transfer U.S. assets to a U.S. entity. The move aims to quell political furor -- much of it stirred up by Eller on Capitol Hill.

"We're making this public because we think Congress should do what it planned last week -- to pass a bill to specifically disavow the Dubai company from owning a U.S. port operation," Kreitzer said by phone...

Thanks to Buzzflash for verifying what we knew.

Now the question is: will Congress do anything about it?