Josip Heit’s name appears in Dubai Uncovered, a leaked dataset of property ownership in the emirate examined by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. According to reporting by the Croatian outlet Ostro drawing on that data, Heit owns or has owned several apartments and office spaces in Dubai purchased for more than 21 million euros. The properties were acquired roughly two years before the reporting, and some have already been sold.
The figure matters because of what was happening in the same period. Heit signed a settlement with American and Canadian securities regulators in September 2024 under which he agreed to refund investors across 34 US states and six Canadian provinces. Claims closed in May 2025. As of September 2026, none had been determined.
The Property Trail Across Three Countries
Dubai is the largest holding but not the only one. In Kastela, near Split in Croatia, Heit purchased land and an old building in 2019 for more than 940,000 euros, and Ostro reports his name is connected to other local companies that hold real estate. He is described as based between Dubai and Germany, and the corporate addresses recorded in California’s November 2023 enforcement summary for the GSB entities ran from Fomboni in the Comoros to Al Wasl in Dubai to Dusseldorf.
Dubai occupies a particular position in cases of this kind. It has no extradition treaty with a number of jurisdictions, property purchases have historically involved limited public disclosure, and the emirate has repeatedly appeared in leaked datasets showing holdings by individuals under investigation elsewhere. That is precisely why the Dubai Uncovered leak was of journalistic interest in the first place.
The 9.5 Million Euro Round Trip
One Croatian transaction reported by Ostro stands out. GSB Gold Standard Banking Corporation purchased shares in a company called White Rock Minerals, since renamed Kameni Trogir, from Sasa Svalina for 9.5 million euros. Svalina has been described in reporting as connected to Heit and previously appeared in Karatbars International marketing material. Three years later, the same company was bought by Milan Rapaic, a former Croatian international footballer, for the same 9.5 million euros.
A company changing hands twice at an identical price three years apart is unusual in any market. It is the kind of transaction that prosecutors examining money laundering typically want explained, and the Split prosecutor’s office has confirmed that investigative actions concerning Heit are ongoing.
What This Does and Does Not Establish
Owning property is not a crime, and the Dubai Uncovered data establishes ownership rather than the source of funds. No court has found that any of these purchases involved investor money. The Croatian investigation is at the assessment stage and its proceedings are secret. Heit has not been charged in Croatia.
What the reporting does establish is a documented asset position that sits alongside an unfulfilled refund obligation. Investors in 34 states and six provinces were told in 2024 they would be made whole. In July 2025 Arizona filed a status report attributing unexpected delays to Heit and GSPartners. The properties were bought in the same window.
What the Regulators Established Before the Property Appeared
The purchases sit against a documented enforcement record. In November 2023 California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation found that GSPartners had represented itself as a licensed bank while omitting that its licence came from a fictitious regulator in the Comoros, that it claimed a foreign exchange partnership managing investor funds when none existed, that investor money carried no FDIC insurance, and that the company had threatened and initiated litigation to suppress criticism of its investments.
Texas issued Emergency Cease and Desist Order ENF-23-CDO-1879 the same day. Florida described lavish commissions and deliberately obscure information about how profits were generated. Wisconsin found the company had never been registered with the state, the SEC or FINRA in any capacity. GSPartners had claimed, by its own account, to have taken around a billion dollars from more than 800,000 investors worldwide.
The Refund Obligation Running in Parallel
The September 2024 settlement carried no financial penalty and no admission. Its entire consideration to the public was a commitment to refund investors across the settling North American jurisdictions through an independent administrator. Claims closed on 22 May 2025. Investors were told to submit whatever supporting records they held.
On 1 September 2026 the administrator disclosed that determination of those claims had not begun. A filing in the Arizona Corporation Commission’s case, made on 15 July 2026, recorded three consecutive status reports stating claims were under review, then unexpected delays, then a note that those delays were not attributable to the Division and that Heit and the GSB entities, through counsel, had indicated an intention to resolve outstanding issues as promptly as possible. California, which secured its own settlement requiring the return of all funds deposited by Californian clients less withdrawals, has said nothing publicly since.
The Dubai purchases and the unfulfilled refund obligation occupy the same window. That is the entire point of setting them side by side.
Conclusion
A leaked Dubai property dataset places more than 21 million euros of apartments and offices in Josip Heit’s name, bought in the period during which he was negotiating and then failing to complete refunds to investors across 40 North American jurisdictions. He bought land near Split for 940,000 euros in 2019. A company his corporation bought for 9.5 million euros was resold three years later for exactly 9.5 million euros. Croatian prosecutors are assessing whether the elements of money laundering are present. The claims process has determined nothing.
