Abu Dhabi: The ruling in a Dh46.4 million attempted fraud case has been adjourned.

February 24 is the new date set for the case filed against two GCC citizens, who allegedly tried to defraud the UAE Central Bank.

Justice Idris Bin Mansour of the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance, did not give a reason for deferring the verdict which was due on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have charged the two defendants, one of them in absentia, with attempting to withdraw the money from the Central Bank after producing a power of attorney and a statement from a foreign bank, both forged, last month.

The defendants are facing a jail term of not more than two years and a fine of not more than Dh20,000, under the Penal Code.

The prime accused, who produced the documents, is being detained at Al Wathba Central Prison, while the second defendant is still at large.
On detecting that the documents were fake, the Central Bank reported the matter to the police who caught and detained the prime suspect.

The second defendant, a frequent visitor to the UAE for business, gave his accomplice documents addressed to the governor of the Central Bank stating that he had received a loan from a foreign bank operating in the UAE in October 1998, according to court records.

The businessman deposited this existing loan with another foreign bank, allowing the latter to invest the money. The investment was made on the condition that the latter bank paid 60 per cent of the profits made through the investment account to him [the businessman] and 40 per cent to the first bank.

At the end of the loan term, the second bank was to repay the loan to the first bank (which initially gave him the loan) but instead the businessman was told that the money had been deposited with the Central Bank.
The businessman then authorized his accomplice to collect the money from the Central Bank.

Ali Ahmad Al Manna’ie, advocate of the prime defendant, previously told the court that his client (who was carrying a power of attorney to follow up the transaction and not to collect the money) went straight to the Central Bank’s anti-money laundering department, but was shocked to find himself facing police interrogation on charges of attempting to illegally withdraw funds from the Central Bank.