Accounting officer jailed, fined Dhs343,000

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A global investment company’s accounting officer who swindled Dhs193,089 must spend one year behind bars and pay a Dhs343,089 fine, a jury ruled on Sunday. 

The Asian defendant, 39, worked at the company tasked with handling matters of business partners, issuing receipts, cashing cheques and banking money. He committed 20 electronic swindling operations.

He received Dhs106,189, embezzled it and registered transactions in the accounting system as postdated cheques. Nonetheless, he received Dhs86,900 and declined to deposit it in the company bank account.

The Criminal Court first jailed him in absentia for five years and ordered him to pay Dhs101,910 plus a fine worth the embezzled sum. During a retrial on Mar.18 he denied forging and using forged e-documents.

He contended that the money he embezzled was less than Dhs106,189. However, he acknowledged having declined to deposit the Dhs86,900 in the account. The Court reduced the jail term to one year.

Prosecutors appealed seeking a tougher punishment. The Appeals Court’s jury on Sunday sentenced him to one year behind bars, slapped him with a Dhs150,000 fine and ordered him to repay the Dhs193,089.

In prosecution records, a Jordanian internal audit section manager narrated that the fraudulent activities came to light after one of the partners returned to the company to apply for changing the name of his company.

The concerned employee notified him he owed the company a sum of money because he deposited a postdated cheque. The partner denied having presented any such cheque and said he paid the officer cash.

He insisted he had even kept the receipt with him. The management told him to bring it. The receipt showed it was issued by the officer – who had received the cash from him but registered it as a postdated cheque.

“From this, I realised that the officer concealed the incident by counterfeiting data in the e-system,” explained the manager. The management reviewed all earlier transactions the officer had executed.

“We discovered he embezzled more money. During workplace questioning, he admitted and wrote a confession document then fixed his signature on it. He returned some Dhs91,179 through his brother.”

The manager said the defendant promised to bring the remaining Dhs101,910. Technical evidence included his written confession. Records showed he confessed to the fraud during police questioning.