In
1992 Ted J. Van Der Zalm, a Chicago CPA with international accounting experience,
joined a team of real estate developers on the Belize Project. The team was in
pursuit of a plan to build an exclusive all-inclusive vacation resort in the
country of Belize. Ted’s role was to secure financing from wealthy individuals
outside of the U.S. Their tumultuous search for financiers eventually led them
to partner with a family that had strong ties to individuals with oil money in
the middle east.
In
June of ’93 the team set up a corporation with an office in Dubai. Once
situated in Dubai, Ted’s business partners began to rack up debts of their own and
eventually fled the country to avoid their own troubles. This left Ted
responsible for the corporate debts as well as the initial investment made in
Belize. In Dubai, the individual whose signature appears on a check is held
responsible for payment even if it is on a corporate account. Ted is arrested
and jailed in December ’95.
Ted
spent the next 3-1/2 years in and out of the Dubai prison system as additional cases
pile up against him. The Van Der Zalm family provide bail money initially but eventually
Ted is overwhelmed with debt and has to serve long prison sentence.
While
imprisoned Ted learns from an Afghan prisoner that there are attacks planned on
a foreign embassy in Kenya. Ted tells the US embassy about what he has learned
and they tell him to ignore the rumor. Ted is then interrogated and told he
will never be allowed to leave.
In
June of 1997 a judge takes pity on him he is allowed to leave and take care of
his debts. While out of jail for a brief 30 days, he builds a wooden crate
under the cover of darkness and with the help of a few friends, mails himself via
air cargo to Amsterdam where he is picked up by his brother, Hans. After enduring
extreme conditions and some very close calls along the way Ted lived to tell
his story.
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