Ghost bank owner swindles investor’s Dhs60m

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A manager established a ghost bank attributed to a royal and swindled a Dhs60 million deposit from an investor, a jury heard on Sunday.

The defendant –an Oceanian man, 41- allegedly duplicated the stamp of the Dubai Courts Notary Public. He also duplicated the stamp of his investment firm in which he fixed a word ‘bank’ to cement his claims. 

He used both stamps to forge eight receipts and several other documents pertaining to a EUR5 million deposit made by the victim and forge a facilities agreement between a national bank and the investment firm.

He also used both stamps to forge a bank approval letter. He submitted the counterfeit documents to the victim –a German investor, 37- and swindled EUR5 million (worth Dhs20.35m) and Dhs38.9 million.

This came after he convinced the victim that his investment firm was a bank owned by both the national bank and a royal family member. And that the firm would offer him facilities to the tune of EUR50m (203.5m).

And that to obtain the facilities he had to first deposit some Dhs60m in the firm’s account. He showed him the bogus documents one of which described the royal as a guarantor, prosecutors told the Criminal Court. They demanded the toughest punishment. He denied, “I don’t know the alleged victim and I have never dealt with him nor taken any money from him.” His lawyer asked for time. The hearing was adjourned till Nov.20.

The victim who owns a furniture company in Ras Al Khaimah said his Indian employee notified him there was a firm offering facilities in form of loans. They met its manager (the defendant) at his Jumeirah residence.

The defendant claimed he would offer EUR50m on condition the victim made a deposit in the firm’s account. He showed him bogus documents some of which he sent to him by email. The victim got convinced.

“I gave him EUR5m at the firm’s headquarters. He handed me a receipt bearing the royal’s name. My employee delivered the Dhs38.9m to him. He sent me forged bank statements attributed to the national bank.

“He told me that the royal was his business partner. He counterfeited documents by including the word ‘bank’ and adding the royal’s name,” explained the victim who complained to the Bur Dubai Police Station.

The Indian employee said the victim repeatedly asked the defendant to start transferring the facilities as per the agreement but the latter kept stalling. “The victim even sent voice messages to his mobile. We later discovered he was detained.”

Records showed he had a chain of crimes including forging a passport he used in a bid to flee abroad.