Dubai: 19 charged with embezzling over Dh183 million from law firm

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Dubai - The defendants were also accused of forging official documents, and using them to set up four consultancy firms in other countries.

By Web report

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Published: Mon 5 Jul 2021, 12:00 PM

The Public Prosecution in Dubai has referred 19 people of various nationalities, including four fugitives, to the Criminal Court on charges of embezzling more than Dh183 million from a law firm.

The defendants were also accused of forging official documents, and using them to set up four consultancy firms in other countries.


According to Al Khaleej, the case dates back to 2017, when the owner of a law firm discovered that the office manager (the main defendant), along with the rest of the accused, had tampered with the firm’s profits by falsifying final statements and forging documents.

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The owner of the firm filed a report accusing his office manager and several employees of forgery and establishing legal consultancy offices in four countries to steal money from his office and his clients.

He stated that the accused submitted forged documents to government agencies to establish a consulting office without his knowledge, with the intention of defrauding his clients, collecting the fees for cases related to his office, and profiting unjustly from funds belonging to him.

During investigations, an employee in the Sharjah Free Zone confirmed that the main defendant in the case submitted a request in 2014 on behalf of three other defendants, with a power of attorney certified by the notary public, to establish a company for administrative services and consultancy. In 2016, the fourth defendant submitted a request to cancel the company's contract.

The Dubai Public Prosecution charged the defendants on seven counts, including embezzlement of Dh183,660,000 belonging to the law firm.

It also charged the main defendant with leaking the data of clients of the law firm for the benefit of companies he established with his wife and other defendants in a free zone in two cities in the country and four cities around the world.

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The Dubai Public Prosecution charged the remaining defendants with participating in and assisting the main defendant in the aforementioned charges, as well as possession of funds obtained from crimes, in addition to breach of trust.

It also charged a European national with participating in the forgery of an electronic document and using it with prior knowledge.

The Court of Appeal in Sharjah had upheld a preliminary ruling issued by the Criminal Court to imprison three employees who were working in the same law firm in absentia for a period of three years. It also moved to imprison a fourth convict for six months, followed by deportation.


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