14 charged with counterfeiting of authorisations

The 14 people — 10 men and four women — have been charged with counterfeiting stamps and official documents of a government department to issue authorisations for UAE nationals to large investors to trade shares on their behalf. The suspects, of different Arab and Asian nationalities, are working with a number of typing and lawyer’s offices in the emirate. Acting on a tip-off, the authorities had kept the group under surveillance and caught them red-handed.

The low-income UAE nationals sign an undertaking, documented by the court, allowing investors to open accounts on their behalf and subsequently trade in shares. The documents also allow their holders to do other deals in connection with these stocks with any government or semi-government bodies. In return for these privileges, the disadvantaged people receive approximately Dh1,000, provided they give copies of their passports and original nationality documents. A few large investors reportedly secured undertakings allowing them to obtain more than a million stocks.

The arrest came as part and parcel of a large-scale campaign, organised by the RAK Government, to control corruption in the emirate’s different departments. The drive, launched under the directives of Shaikh Saud bin Saqer Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, had earlier led to the arrest of two groups of government officials in two government departments.