No criminal charges have been brought against solicitor David Haigh over alleged misappropriation of funds.

A judge has granted an interim worldwide freezing order over the assets of solicitor David Haigh, former managing director of Leeds United, according to reports today.

Haigh, 36, who was deputy chief executive and general counsel of private equity house GFH Capital, was detained in a Dubai police station following his arrest shortly after arriving at GFH’s offices on 18 May.

The visit was made on the premise of discussing a new employment opportunity. Last month police said GFH was suing Haigh for alleged embezzlement, adding that the company discovered irregularities when it conducted its annual internal audit.

Particulars of claim filed at Dubai International Financial Centre Courts on 26 May allege that Haigh (pictured) ‘misappropriated funds from the claimant [GFH Capital] in a sum with a value approximating $5m by creating or procuring the creation of false invoices and procuring payment of those false invoices from funds belonging to the claimant’.

GFH is represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Dubai. Haigh is represented by boutique Gulf firm KBH Kaanuun.

Haigh vehemently denies all the allegations against him and no criminal charges have been brought. His address is given as c/o Bur Dubai Police Station.

In addition to a global freezing order, Dubai-based Arabian Business magazine reports, lawyers for GFH also applied yesterday for an interim search order on Haigh’s assets in a hearing at the DIFC Courts, before deputy chief justice Sir John Chadwick, presiding via video link from London. This was also granted.

It had been thought the allegations against Haigh related to GFH’s time as owner of Leeds and its recent sale of the Championship club to Italian Massimo Cellino, though GFH has said the issues were ‘unrelated’.

Haigh brokered GFH’s purchase of Leeds from Ken Bates in December 2012. He left his job at GFH earlier this year after Cellino bought a 75% stake in Leeds.

Haigh is understood to have trained as a solicitor at a firm in the West End of London. He has also been politically active, founding Conservatives in the Gulf in 2007.