Last month, Whale Hunting exclusively reported how Benjamin Mauerberger, a global money laundering kingpin, had infiltrated the Aman Group – one of the world’s most luxurious hotel chains. We reported how fronts for Mauerberger invested in Janu Dubai, a $1.5 billion hotel in the heart of Dubai’s financial district, as well as other Aman projects.

Since our reporting, Aman has put the Dubai project on the back burner as it fights fires, including angry questions from panicked shareholders and a growing criminal global investigation into the Mauerberger network, spanning Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.

For Aman, which is involved in some of the U.S.’s largest new hotel projects in Beverly Hills and Miami Beach, the connection to Mauerberger is toxic. The South African is wanted in Thailand for laundering billions of dollars in proceeds from scam centers, drugs, and human trafficking.

The Mauerberger network stole billions from Americans and laundered the money using Tether and other cryptocurrencies. The victims are American teens who kill themselves after being extorted, or retirees who lose their life savings. Those conducting the scams in Southeast Asia are victims too, forced to work 17-hour days under the threat of torture and rape by Chinese mafia.

After Whale Hunting’s reporting, minority shareholders in Aman, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Cain International, are demanding to know how this money tainted a brand valued at $3 billion. As law enforcement closes in on Mauerberger, who is now on the run, a civil war is brewing in the Aman boardroom.

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Vladislav Doronin, owner and CEO of Aman Group

The Mauerberger Connection

Mauerberger entered the Aman environment by purchasing two entire floors of Aman Nai Lert, a prestigious Bangkok condominium, in 2023. He was generating significant proceeds from Cambodia-based scam factories and these huge high-end acquisitions put him on the radar of Vladislav Doronin, the owner and CEO of Aman.

Doronin took control of Aman ten years ago following a hostile battle with its founder, Adrian Zecha. Aman became famous for its "Amanjunkie" cult – ultra-wealthy loyalists and celebrities like Bill Gates and the Kardashians who seek the brand’s extreme privacy. Many of the hotels were in remote parts of Asia, like Java and Phuket – oases of calm.

A USSR-born developer who moved his residency to Switzerland, Doronin moved Aman into major cities like Tokyo and New York. While Doronin was expanding the brand, he became embroiled in a bitter legal war. In early 2022, his U.S. development arm, OKO Group, purchased a one-acre plot on Aspen Mountain for $76.25 million — a staggering price for a piece of land that had sold for just $10 million only months prior.

The local newspaper, The Aspen Times, began investigating the deal, publishing opinion pieces that referred to Doronin as a "Russian oligarch" and questioned the source of his wealth in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Doronin struck back with a defamation lawsuit in April 2022, arguing he was a naturalized Swedish citizen who had not lived in Russia for decades and was being unfairly targeted by widespread negative sentiment.

The lawsuit effectively silenced the paper, leading to a period of self-censorship and the firing of its editor, which sparked a local boycott. On April 14, 2022 — exactly one day after filing his lawsuit against The Aspen Times — Doronin executed a shift in his business empire. He transferred his 33% stake in Capital Group, the Moscow-based real estate giant he co-founded, to his mother. Doronin had maintained that he had no business interests in Russia since 2014; his legal team later said the transfer was to comply with Kremlin rules over foreign ownership.

Doronin’s personal life was similarly turbulent, most notably in his relationship with Naomi Campbell. The couple dated from 2008 to 2013, but years later, Doronin sued the supermodel for the return of property and unpaid loans he valued at over $3 million, prompting Campbell to launch her own counterclaims in a multi-year legal drama that played out across international tabloids.

As Doronin expanded the Aman brand, his strategy shifted from merely operating hotels to owning the real estate itself. The flagship for this vision was the Aman New York, a massive $1.65 billion conversion of the historic 1921 Art Deco Crown Building on 57th and Fifth. The project was a staggering undertaking that faced immense financial pressure and pandemic-era delays, requiring a complex capital structure to reach completion.

Jonathan Goldstein and Cain International — the firm co-founded by Goldstein and Chelsea FC owner Todd Boehly — first stepped in during this critical phase, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in mezzanine financing to save the development from stalling. Goldstein saw the relationship with Doronin deepen as Cain backed several of his Miami towers and took the lead on One Beverly Hills, a $4.3 billion resort that stands as the largest real estate project in California history.

By then, the groundwork for a larger partnership had been laid; in 2022, Cain and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) injected $900 million into Aman, valuing the brand at $3 billion.

It was only after the Aman New York established itself as Manhattan’s most exclusive address that Mauerberger’s involvement at the Crown Building grew. In early 2024, he purchased an apartment in the tower for $21 million, executing the deal through a shell company linked to his wife, Cattaliya Beevor. The seller was Vladislav Doronin.

Amidst this surge of expansion, Mauerberger transitioned from a luxury buyer to a potential shadow investor, looking to put his scam proceeds into the very heart of the brand’s global portfolio.

The Aman Expansion: The Dubai Fixer

Mauerberger traveled to Phuket with Doronin to scout a potential site for a Janu hotel – a new and more energetic brand under the Aman banner. Mauerberger had already acquired a significant parcel of land just over the bridge in Phang-Nga, and the two explored the possibility of a joint development. While that specific deal never materialized, the scouting trip cemented Mauerberger’s status as more than just a guest; he was now a peer in the hunt for new territory.

When the focus shifted to the Middle East, Dubai required a different kind of entry. To embed himself into the emirate’s rigid financial and royal circles, Mauerberger leaned on George Azar, the head of Sotheby’s International Realty in the UK and UAE.

Azar is a man who operates between old-world prestige and new-world cash. While he was busy marketing the most expensive penthouses in Dubai, he was fighting a defensive action in the UK, where his business interests were under intense pressure. Official filings at Companies House revealed his UK operation had faced insolvency proceedings and significant liabilities. To Mauerberger, Azar was the ultimate fixer — the man who could open the right doors.

Sources say it was Azar who personally introduced the South African to H&H Development. This wasn't just any developer. H&H is the ultimate Dubai insider, co-founded by Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, the UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs. In a city where proximity to the state is everything, H&H is a titan.

With Azar acting as the bridge, Mauerberger moved from being an "Amanjunkie" guest to a shadow developer of one of H&H's biggest construction projects: Janu Dubai, a $1.5 billion architectural marvel in the heart of the financial district. Slated to open in 2027, the project included a 150-room Janu hotel, private residences, and an office tower.

As the Herzog & de Meuron-designed tower rose, so did a complex financial structure designed to keep Mauerberger’s name off the deed. Capital Asia Investments, or CAI, his front company in Singapore, became a major investor in Alia Developments, the vehicle that owns the Janu project, according to a source. That stake was owned through the CAI Optimum Fund VCC. Unlike a standard corporation where shareholders are recorded on a public registry, the VCC structure allows the names of the investors to remain strictly confidential. It offered Mauerberger the ultimate camouflage, allowing him to pool his capital under a single corporate umbrella while maintaining absolute privacy.

But even that level of protection became too risky. On Sept. 18, 2025, just days after Whale Hunting first revealed CAI's role in the Mauerberger network, the CAI Optimum Fund VCC sold its stake in Alia Developments to a British Virgin Islands Company called Global Alia Holdings, the source said.

Using Singapore's VCC structures and secretive BVI shell companies, Mauerberger had become a secret owner of the flagship hotel of Dubai's financial center, worth $1.5 billion, protected by laws that prioritized capital privacy over public transparency.

The Launch Party and the Bloomberg Reveal

On February 11, 2026, the elite of the Middle East gathered at the Dubai International Financial Center for the Janu Dubai launch party, including a DJ and dancers. Guests mingled under the watch of a team from George Azar’s Sotheby’s, the firm that had marketing rights for the 57 private residences.

Amidst the celebration, H&H Chairman Shahab Lutfi sat for an interview with Bloomberg. He was the picture of a man who had already won, boasting that the office tower had been pre-sold to Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties. Then he dropped the bombshell: the hotel portion had also been sold to an "Asian investment fund."

When pressed for a name, Lutfi declined. He maintained an air of professional discretion, treating the buyer as just another anonymous institutional giant from the East. Was the fund yet another front for Mauerberger, a man currently wanted for laundering billions in stolen American life savings?

Aman Shareholder Panic

Just days after the Janu Dubai launch party,Whale Hunting reported on Mauerberger’s involvement. Soon after, Singaporean authorities arrested two directors of Capital Asia Investments for money laundering, seizing $124 million in assets.

Simultaneously, a Thai court issued arrest warrants for Mauerberger and his wife, Cattaliya Beevor. Mauerberger fled Thailand in October 2025 and had been living in Dubai, moving between hotels while his $100 million yacht, Wanderlust, remained in Dubai waters. He has now fled Dubai, departing just before the regional conflict with Iran escalated.

The legal actions in Singapore and Thailand caused alarm in the boardrooms of PIF and Cain International, who together own about 30% of Aman. PIF asked Aman’s general counsel for explanations but was not satisfied with the response, according to a source. Cain executives wrote to the Aman board seeking clarification about the ownership structures of properties in Dubai, the Maldives, and Japan.

Questions now remain regarding Mauerberger’s involvement in other Aman hotels. Chartered Group, which is building an Aman on the ski slopes of Niseko in northern Japan, stated they were introduced to Mauerberger via Aman. While they deny Mauerberger is an investor, Chartered appears to have other connections to him. Owned by Eyal Agmoni, Chartered was involved in the purchase of a stake in the Thai energy company Bangchak, which Thai authorities believe was partially financed by Mauerberger fronts.

Another source says Mauerberger is involved in the Aman Maldives, which is currently under construction. When he fled Dubai, Mauerberger traveled by yacht to the Seychelles and sent another to the Maldives, where he has reportedly been attempting to acquire a passport.

As law enforcement closes in, the Aman Group must now account for how its expansion became tethered to a global criminal network.

We have written to Vladislav Doronin and will update the story with any reply.

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