$20 million fake loan case: Accused acquitted

Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

An African who was charged with facilitating a $20 million fake loan to an Italian businessman and embezzling $176,000 has been acquitted by the Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday.

Official records reveal the Italian victim met a person in Brazil, in 2018, who claimed to know UAE officials who could facilitate $20 million loan to his company.

Later, the businessman was contacted by a Gulf Citizen who introduced himself as an official working with an economic entity in the UAE. He also told the businessman that his loan application was approved and that he would have to pay an administrative fees of  $176,000 in batches.

The victim started sending the amount in batches and each time he would recieve an email comprising forged documents showing economic entity’s approval of the loan. The documents would also contain the further steps he needed to take to acquire the loan.

The victim later came to the UAE to follow up the matter himself. He recieved a call from a defendant that he would still have to pay $33,000 to the nortary public to complete the procedures.

This aroused his suspicions and he contacted the economic entity concerned when he was told there was no such loan and that he had fallen victim to fraud.   The role of the African defendant, who got acquitted, was limited to helping other defendants decieve the victim.

In a separate case, a 50-year-old Brazilian visitor has been caught with (54) capsules of cocaine drugs in his stomach while on a transit trip to an African country. The incident took place when a Dubai’s customs officer suspected the visitor and ordered for a manual search of his luggage. When the suspect was asked to pass through a body scanner, strange objects were found in his stomach.

During further investigation the suspect confessed to carrying the cocaine capsules inside his stomach. He was immediately taken to the hospital to get the capsules out of his system. He is currently in detention and has been referred to the criminal court over the charge of drug trafficking.