Trio defrauds Italian businessman of $176,000

Three Africans seized $176,000 from an Italian businessman after they claimed they were able to facilitate a $20 million loan to his company.  The victim testified before the Dubai Public Prosecution that he met a person in Brazil in 2018, who claimed he knew officials in the Emirates, who could facilitate obtaining a loan of $20 million to expand the activities of his company.

The victim added, “After a while, a GCC person contacted me, claiming he belonged to an economic authority in the UAE, adding he agreed to give a loan to his company, provided that he would pay $176,000 as administrative fees in installments. I sent the amount in installments, and each time, the suspect sent me mails, with false documents indicating the approval of the economic authority on the loan.”

He added when he returned to the UAE to follow up the issue, he received a call from one of the suspects informing him that he had to pay an additional $33,000 to complete the procedures, but he had doubts and contacted the economic authority, to find that there was no loan and that he was defrauded.

In a seperate case, the Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced two Arab employees to 3 months in jail to be followed by deportation after being convicted of using an ID card that did not belong to them to apply for medical fitness test to obtain a residence visa.

The prosecution witness, an administrative officer, said while he was at work in a medical fitness centre, a report was received from an employee, who served as a witness, that one of the defendants applied for medical fitness test using an ID card that did not belong to him to obtain a residence visa.

The witness explained that when the defendant was asked to present his own ID card, he presented another ID card that belonged to the second defendant. After checking the presented ID card, the witness noticed that the photo in the ID card is different from the person in front of him. When the witness tried to inquire about the ID card, the defendant left without giving any response. On the following day, the second defendant came to get the medical examination result. When asked about the first defendant who submitted the application, the second defendant denied, stating that it was him who came to the centre for medical fitness test.

The witness then asked the second defendant to come to the centre with the first defendant. The two defendants came together and stated that they were joking with the witness and the management. Accordingly, an official complaint was filed against them.