Dubai: A businessman denied in court on Tuesday the accusation of conspiring with a banker in forging documents to embezzle Dh30.5 million from his wife’s bank account.
The 37-year-old Emirati banker at a local bank’s branch in Al Rashidiya and another suspect, who remains at large, were charged with forging the signature of the Emirati woman and embezzling her money. Meanwhile, the Emirati businessman was accused of aiding and abetting the banker, an accusation that he strongly dismissed before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.
Addressing presiding judge Shaikha Hamad in courtroom three, the Emirati businessman contended: “I did not do that … I was outside the country for four years. I cannot understand how prosecutors accused me of doing this while I was abroad. I am not guilty.”
In the previous hearing, the 37-year-old banker pleaded not guilty.
In August 2009, the wife visited the banker and opened a bank account for her and her children, showed records.
She deposited Dh30.5 million into the account and was told that she would earn a fixed interest rate of 13.5 per cent annually.
When she did not receive any email confirming that her savings bank account had been opened, according to records, she contacted the bank and asked them to communicate with her personally.
Afterwards, the 37-year-old banker emailed her a notification that the bank account had been opened.
When the first interest was due, she again did not receive any notification, but received an email from the banker asking her to continue investing her money with the bank.
The banker and another British bank employee allegedly constantly called her up and asked her to come and sign some documents, but she did not go, said records.
Eventually, she called the banker and asked him to transfer her money to another bank account but when he delayed doing it, she complained to the bank’s legal department.
She complained to the police when the bank did not resolve the matter.
Police interrogations revealed that the woman’s account had zero balance because the banker and her husband had been allegedly forging documents and embezzling her money.
The suspects pleaded not guilty in court.
The businessman’s lawyer, Mohammad Al Khaili, and the banker’s lawyer, Hawra Mousa, asked presiding judge Hamad to hear the statements of prosecution witnesses when the court reconvenes on August 6.
