Appeal court upholds verdict against 6 in DIB case

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the ten years jail sentence awarded by the Court of First Instance to six businessmen and bank executives for embezzling more than Dh1.8bn from Dubai Islamic Bank between 2004 and 2007.

The accused American businessman, ZO (fugitive), two British businessmen – CM, 48,and RL, 50, – two former DIB executives both Pakistanis  – RO,50 and OM, 39 – and one Turkish businessman, EN, 36, (fugitive) were also ordered to pay Dh3.64bn fine.

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 who was involved in the case, a British businessman AV, 58, director of Plantation Holdings 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 of RL, CM and EN worked, according to the records of the case, dated 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 firm CCH was assigned by the bank to manage profiteering with 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 the bank executives RO and OM of asking and accepting bribes of $950,000 and $750 respectively for facilitating bank credits granted against bogus deals and increasing the credits to $400m.

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 which in turn submitted the documents to the bank to get the credit with the knowledge of the rest of the accused that the deals were bogus.

Abdullah Al Hamli, DIB CEO, had testified before the Court that their illegal profiteering and forgery caused losses to the bank and the government.

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