Manager fined Dhs4.47 million for fraud

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A private company manager who embezzled Dhs2.23 million from his workplace will spend five years in the dock and pay twice the sum, the Dubai Criminal Court has ruled.

The Asian defendant, 49, worked at a distribution services company as its financial and administrative manager. He abused his duties to siphon Dhs2, 238, 602 between 2011 and 2015, prosecutors revealed on Jan.13.

He aided a female Asian treasurer, 51, to swindle Dhs70, 000 and aided an accountant, 38, and a chief accountant, 38, to swindle Dhs11, 500, and Dhs35, 000 respectively. The trio also abetted the manager’s criminal activities.

Both accountants faked e-records including receipts by exaggerating sums of money that the company’s clients owed to it. To conceal missing Dhs296, 886, the accountant exaggerated Dhs849, 139 to Dhs1, 146, 026.    

The manager went on the run. The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him (in absentia) to five years in jail, ordered him to repay the Dhs2, 238, 602 and slapped him with an equivalent fine to be followed by deportation.

It sentenced the treasurer, accountant and chief accountant to three years and slapped them with Dhs100, 000 fines plus deportation. In addition, it ordered the manager and accountant to repay Dhs296, 886 plus an equivalent fine. Prosecutors had accused the manager’s sister –a secretary, 44- of taking part in the scam. They said the manager illicitly handed her allowances and bonuses to the tune of Dhs19, 025. However, the court found her innocent.

On the record, an Egyptian financial control officer said the company incurred a Dhs2.35m loss as a result of the manager’s activities in which the other convicts were also involved. They faked receipts of petty expences in the e-system.

He said the female treasurer who had been tasked with collecting sums and depositing them in the company’s account overlooked procedures. She pocketed Dhs70, 000 and helped the manager walk away with Dhs316, 548. She helped the accountant take Dhs11, 500 and the chief accountant take Dhs35, 000. All this happened upon the manager’s consent. The accountant exaggerated receipts and the chief registered bogus data in the e-system.  The accountant would manipulate petty expences receipts pertaining to the company’s vehicles. He presented statements to the manager for approval without showing documents to back them or receipts showing he spent the mentioned sums in the company’s interest.