CLEVELAND, Ohio— An East Cleveland man posed as a member of the royal United Arab Emirates family, worked with his brother to scam several people out of some $10 million and bribed an East Cleveland official to help give them legitimacy, federal prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in the brothers’ trial.
Zubair Al Zubair and Muzzamil Al Zubair committed a slew of schemes and other crimes during a three-year span, prosecutors said, including bribing former East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King’s chief of staff, Michael Smedley, with access to a Cleveland Browns suite and a job offer, prosecutors told the jury.
Both Al Zubairs and Smedley went on trial together Monday on a slew of charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks…