28 men jailed for Dh635 million fraud in Abu Dhabi bank

Abu Dhabi - The jail sentences come up to a total of 283 years.

An Abu Dhabi court has sentenced 28 men to various jail terms, totalling to 283 years, for attempting to steal Dh635 million from the account of an Abu Dhabi bank through electronic transfer.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday handed down the jail sentences to the men - including Indian, Pakistani, American, Russian and Canadian nationalities - after they were found guilty of fraud and unlawful transfer of the bank's funds using means of information technology.
The eight main defendants in the case have each been sentenced to 15 years in jail while 10 others will each spend 10 years in jail.
The court also sentenced nine other men, who transferred the cash to their private bank accounts to seven years each in jail.
The remaining five defendants were cleared of the charges after the court found out that they were innocent and never participated in the fraud.
The court also ordered that the men should return Dh9 million, which they managed to steal, to the bank. The men were also fined Dh635 million, an amount equivalent to what they attempted to steal.
They were also ordered to pay Dh21,000 as civil compensation to the bank in addition to paying the legal or court charges.
Court documents stated that the Abu Dhabi Financial Prosecution in coordination with Abu Dhabi Police's CID had managed to recover Dh625 million out of the total cash from the victims' bank accounts within 24 hours after getting information about the fraud.
The police had arrested the defendants in June 2017 after investigations suggested that they were involved in the fraud.
Prosecutors said that a local bank had reported about an unusual withdrawal of huge amounts of money from its account.
One of the defendants, a bank employee, accessed the bank's electronic system using the password of another employee, and transferred the cash totaling to Dh635 million to accounts of five companies in five different banks.
The Financial Public Prosecution had issued an order to freeze the bank accounts where the cash was transferred in addition to the seizure of 6,000 pieces of mobile phones worth about Dh10 million that were purchased by the suspects using part of the stolen funds.
The men had denied charges throughout their trial. All the convicted men will be deported after serving their jail sentences.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi