DUBAI 20 August 2017: Two Tunisians – with help of three other investors – allegedly conned a national bank out of Dh15.5 million using four forged cheques, the Dubai Criminal Court will hear today.
NA, 33, and WS, 37, allegedly forged four cheques of different amounts and withdrew money from a government authority bank account with the national bank.
The two deposited the four cheques in ATM machines to transfer the funds to the accounts of three companies owned by AR, 42 Bangladeshi, SH, 42, German of Tunisian origin, and SL, 35 Egyptian.
Two cheques of Dh3,700,730 and Dh3,400,375 were issued to the favour of a company owned by Bangladeshi AR.
A third cheque of Dh4,700,475 was issued to a company owned by German SH.
The fourth cheque of Dh3,700,623 and was issued in the name of a company owned by Egyptian SL.
The three investors agreed to give their companies’ account numbers to steal the amounts against a commission of 5 to 10 per cent.
Tunisian HK, 51, is accused of providing shelter to the accused and helping them hide from justice.
Bangladeshi investor AM, 38, is accused of refraining from informing authorities about the crime although he was aware of it.
The cheques carried January 26 due date but were deposited on January 30. The accused then withdraw different amounts until the crime was discovered on the following day January 31.
Accounts of the accused were frozen when the bank of the government authority’s account discovered that the four cheques were forged after it had already approved the transfer of the amounts based on central clearing system.
Police arrested the three investors, owners of the bank accounts where the money were transferred to.
They admitted the crime and revealed the identity of the two Tunisians.
The court will reconvene today.
By Lolyana Zaki