Abu Dhabi court upholds verdict

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation upheld the sentencing of two customer service employees at a government entity to one year in jail each and a fine of Dhs150,000.

The two suspects embezzled Dhs958,000 they had received to deposit in the entity’s safe.

The court also ordered them to pay back the embezzled amount plus a similar amount as a fine.

The Public Prosecution charged the employees with the embezzlement of Dhs958,440 from their workplace and premeditatedly harming it.

In another development, two businessmen invested their money in the sale of the apartments where the first paid to the second Dhs1,600,000, as a partner and both agreed that the second would repay the partner the same amount plus half of the profit.

The second investor suggested to his friend that he would deposit the money in one of the investment portfolios, to which he agreed. Then he gave his partner Dhs10m, while the second partner shared with Dhs9m but put all the amount in the portfolio under his name. The portfolio lost all the money of the depositors.

The price of the apartments in which the two partners invested their money has gone up and achieved good profits. When the second partner asked the first for his share of the price and half of the profits, he refused, saying he put his share in the investment portfolio which lost all the money.

The two partners disputed as the second insisted that he put the first partner’s share in the investment portfolio at his request, while the first insisted he did not ask him to do so and hold him the responsible for the loss of money.

The reconciliation committees failed to solve the problem. Consequently, the second partner filed a suit with the Abu Dhabi Civil Court, demanding his partner to pay him Dhs2.5m, the original amount, plus half of the profits.

The first investor filed a lawsuit demanding the second to pay him the settlement amount he received from the committee tasked with settling depositors’ conditions in the investment portfolio.

The Court of First Instance called an expert to give his technical opinion. He said the first partner must pay Dhs2.5m to the second.  The report also affirmed that the second partner did not authorise the first to invest his money in any field.

Accordingly, the court ordered the second partner to pay the amount to the first and rejected the second lawsuit. The Appellate Court annulled the Court of First Instance ruling and ordered the second partner to pay Dhs2m to the first.