Six must do jail time for Dh1.8bn DIB fraud

The Dubai Cassation Court upheld the 10 years in jail sentence against six businessmen and bank executives for embezzling more than Dh1.8 billion from Dubai Islamic Bank between 2004 and 2007.
 
The court also upheld the verdict of the Appeal Court related to the payment of the Dh1.8bn fine but turned back the case to the Appeals for reconsidering the payment of the refund to the bank.
 
The convicts identified as: American businessman ZO (fugitive), two British businessmen – CM, 48, and RL, 50; two Pakistani DIB former executives  – RO, 50 and OM, 39 – and one Turkish businessman, EN, 36, (fugitive), were also ordered to pay Dh3.64bn as a fine and bank refund.

The two bank executives RO, OM, and the American businessman ZO were also ordered to pay a combined fine of $2 million (Dh7.3m) and to return a further $2m to DIB.
 
The seventh involved in the case, a British businessman AV, 58, was acquitted in April by the Criminal Court of First Instance and the Appeal upheld his acquittal.
 
The Dubai Government Financial Audit Department reported that $501m (Dh1.84bn) from the bank had been given  in the form of credit allowances to the Turkish firm CCH for which each  RL, CM and EN worked, according to the records of the case dating back to 2008.
 
Mohammed Mustafa Hussain, from the Audit Department testified that the firm CCH, which was run by EN and represented by CM and RL, illegally acquired the funds from the bank with the help of the remaining defendants. The accused exploited the fact that CCH was assigned by the bank to manage overseas clients.
 
CM, who owns a number of companies, prepared documents and invoices of bogus deals with the aim of defrauding the bank and RL submitted the documents to the bank, according to the records.
 
The prosecution accused bank executives RO and OM of asking and accepting bribes of $950,000 for facilitating bank credits granted against bogus deals and increasing the credits to $400m.
 
The American ZO defrauded the bank with $2m as he formed a company and made bogus purchase deals and submitted it to the bank via CCH who in turn submitted the documents to the bank to get the credit with the knowledge of the rest accused that the deals were bogus.
 
Abdullah Al Hamli, DIB CEO, had testified before the court that the accused caused losses to the bank and the government.

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