Former DFM director found guilty of embezzling Dh448,000

Dubai - The Indian national is believed to have encashed Dh448,000, and is accused of forging e-documents and abusing his public position

A financial services director working at Dubai Financial Market (DFM) has been given to a suspended one year jail term for embezzling Dh448,000, and forging cheques of investors' profits worth Dh1.8 million.
The 37-year-old Indian has been been found guilty of forging three electronic documents, abusing his position's privileges to communicate with the printing house that issued the cheques with the investors' profits, and embezzling public funds.
The Dubai Court of First Instance fined him Dh448,000, the value of one of the cheques that he is believed to have encashed in 2015.
According to the prosecution's records, the cheques - worth more than Dh1.8 milllion in total - were due to two banks and a private company.
The case dates back to September 2015. An Iraqi manager, 46, working at DFM said he received an email sent from the printing house that made the cheques, with three copies of the cheques withdrawn from DFM accounts at three banks. The cheques were worth Dh448,000, Dh892,500, and Dh486,381, respectively.
The Iraqi witness said he immediately rushed to the office and summoned the accused. "The cheques were entitlements of shareholders at companies, whose money was invested at the market," he said. But the accused denied issuing the cheques.
The witness then asked the accused to check with the customer service section if they had issued the cheques by mistake. "I followed him to his office. There, he confessed he had issued them but claimed he did it to experiment the operational system between the printing house, the banks and the market," the witness stated.
The accused then confessed that he managed to convince the printing house to issue the cheques naming him as the beneficiary, stating that it was for testing purposes. "He claimed he wanted to see whether the cheque issuing procedure could be breached, to the benefit of individuals who are not shareholders."
The verdict may be appealed.
mary@khaleejtimes.com