Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

A 6-member gang took $200,000 as well as two mobile phones, three valuable watches and a diamond ring valued at Dhs390,000 from a villa after assaulting the villa owner and his wife and threatening to kill them as a result of losing their investments in virtual currencies.

The criminal court sentenced one of them in absentia and the others in their presence to six months in jail to be followed by deportation, while the court of appeal also fined them Dhs936,000 as the value of the stolen items.

According to the official documents, the case dated back to May last year when a European and his wife filed a complaint in which he said he had been assaulted, robbed and threatened to be killed by six people with whom he had a previous business relationship.

The complainant stated in the investigations that he was surprised by people that he knew earlier visiting him, threatening to kill him, assaulting him and his wife and demanding them to pay the money they had lost in virtual currency investments.

Earlier, the defendants asked the victim for advice about investing in virtual currencies, as he was an expert in this field. He advised them to buy one of the virtual currencies in which they invested $30 million.

Several days later, their investment rose to $100 million, so they brought other investors to buy the same currency but after several other days and much to their surprise, the currency dropped to zero and they lost all their savings.

The victim added that the defendants contacted him again to search for ways to make up for their loss and he advised them to invest in a new currency that was not officially launched and was owned by people from an eastern European country.

All the defendants welcomed the idea and one of them created a website for trading in the virtual currency, which was launched for trading in a major hotel in Dubai.

Some 15 minutes after the launch, the site was hacked and the currency fell to zero after all investors had offered the currency for sale. At this point, the defendants accused the victim of causing the loss of their money and they all came to his place of residence.

As they were all in a state of hysteria, they assaulted the victim and his wife and stole $200,000 as well as three valuable watches and a diamond ring that belonged to his wife from a safe in his bedroom before they fled away.

A policeman stated in the investigations that a team of detectives managed to arrest five of the defendants with part of the stolen items in their possession. On interrogation, they confessed to the charges levelled to them.