Duo win suspended jail terms in Dh4.7m embezzlement case

Dubai: A former residency official and a senior executive have won suspended imprisonments in a case of office abuse and embezzling Dh4.7 million from a private company owned by a public entity.

The Emirati official, who was an administration director at the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), and the Indian executive were ruled to have abused their offices after they inflicted a deliberate loss to the private company between 2003 and 2007.

The Dubai Appeal Court handed the ex-official a three-year suspended imprisonment and the executive a one-year suspended imprisonment.

Gulf News has learnt that the imprisonments were suspended on grounds of leniency.

The appellate court ordered the defendants to jointly pay a fine of Dh1.9 million [$400,000 and €90,500].

Meanwhile, the private company’s civil lawsuit has been referred to the Dubai Civil Court.

The GDRFA, which was formerly known as the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) at the time of the crime, owned the private company which handled information technology and system solution services.

In April 2013, the Court of First Instance jailed the defendants for ten years each.

The court proceedings started in 2011.

The case went up to the appeal court for the first time in July 2013.

In April 2014, it went up to the Cassation Court that overturned the appellate ruling and referred the case back to the Appeal Court to hold a new trial.

Prosecutors had accused the former public servants of abuse of authority. They were additionally accused of causing deliberate loss to the private company.

An Indian manager at the company testified that he started working for the company in December 2003.

“The Emirati defendant was my director and the Indian defendant, in his capacity as the second in command, used to give me instructions. They provided me with details of purchase orders. For instance, the executive would ask me to prepare the orders at the finance department. Then he would take those orders and have them signed by the official. Sometimes the Indian used to sign the orders. Thereafter they used to ask me to pay the instalments for those purchase orders to the beneficiaries,” the manager claimed.

Records said the financial irregularities were discovered by the Financial Control Department of the Ruler’s Court.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.