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29 March 2024

PRO 'promotes' himself as chairman... issues visas to family

Published
By Eman Al Baik

A Syrian PRO allegedly managed to falsely promote himself to a manager and then to the position of a chairman of a branch of an international company based in India, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

LA, 44, exploited the position as he falsely promoted himself and issued 167 visit visas and 24 work visas to Syrians and people of other nationalities through the firm's branches even though none of them were employed by the company.

JJ, 36, an Indian manager told the police that the Indian company was awarded a contract for exploring oil and gas in Dubai in 2005.

The company opened a branch in the UAE. The PRO, who was employed in India by the same company, moved to the Dubai branch in 2008.

The PRO was assigned a job to process visas with the UAE's concerned authorities based on the order of the mother company, which supplied him with the needed documents.

He claimed that as part of his job, he would need to have his signature accredited, in order to sign on visa applications.

In 2008, the company was awarded some added work which led to the opening of another branch of the company. Those employees working and based in Singapore branch were set to operate from Dubai as well.

The same PRO was assigned to manage the visa procedures for the employees moving from the Singapore branch.

For this purpose specifically, the accused and other managers were given the authorisation to sign on visa-related documents on behalf of the company.

Since the two companies had the same local agent, it was agreed that the new company would operate from the same office as the first one, upon the suggestion of the PRO who also submitted two letters to the Dubai branch manager in Arabic.

The manager signed on the letters without knowing their content as it was written in Arabic. However, the PRO had actually gotten the manager to sign on a letter stating that he, LA, was the manager of the company.

A trade licence was issued for the second company with LA as its manager. In 2009, the company was awarded 5 additional projects for oil and gas exploration, so the accused recommended setting up companies for each project claiming that it is illegal to assign the workers of the first two companies to work in the other projects.

The new companies had been set up for each project based on a special authorisation given by the mother company in India to the accused. The company contracted with the same local agent who was paid Dh100,000 annually per company. Cheques for these amounts used to be issued in the name of the accused as he was authorised to collect the money.

"The accused appointed himself as a manager for the five new companies without having any authorization for doing that and we do not know how he did it.
Later the company changed the local agent from AS as an individual to a company owned by him and his wife.

"In 2010, the company was awarded a contract in Khalid Port in Sharjah. The accused claimed that the procedures take a long time in Sharjah and suggested that he could set up a branch provided that we lease offices in Sharjah,” said the manager.  

"In December 2012, officials in the first branch company discovered that the accused issued about 167 visit visas and 24 work visas on the expenses of the first two branches set up in Dubai to Syrians and people from other nationalities that have no relation with our companies.

“We also found out that the accused changed his designation to Chairman of the Sharjah-based branch without any authorization from us. Checking with the Economic Department we found out that he had promoted himself as a manager in the six branches.”

The company informed the local agent who said that he had no idea what the accused was doing and that he was just a local agent who received Dh200,0000 annually. The local agent AS, expressed readiness to cooperate with police.

The company confronted the accused with the illegalities he had engaged in and asked him about the visas he had issued. He claimed that he did that to help his people in Syria to come to the UAE due to the war back home, the manager told investigators.

When he was confronted with issuing visas to people from other nationalities, he claimed that this was within his authority as a manager and as a PRO.

The officer, former local agent, AS, 40, told investigators that he used to get from the accused Dh15,000 annually for each of the seven companies for four years.

The mother company supplied investigators with a letter that never appointed the accused as a manager nor as a chairman.

LA, who was accused with forging his designation in his residency stamp on his passport without his employer’s approval to get benefits told investigators that he changed his position to that of a chairman to help facilitate his travel.