Bahrain: Public employee gets 10 years in jail over embezzlement

Dubai: A public servant in Bahrain has been given a ten-year jail term after being found guilty of embezzling public funds, Bahrain’s High Criminal Court announced yesterday.

The court also slapped the employee with a fine of $1,410,220 and ordered him to return the misappropriated amount - equivalent to the fined amount.

The ruling brings the total amount payable to $2,820,444, said the Head of the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution.

According to court files, the accused passed invoices for $1,410,222 in return for supplies and services offered by the state-owned company. However, all the payments, the Public Prosecution found, went to two companies owned by the suspect directly and indirectly.

The suspect was working a director of a department of a state-owned company. Investigators found that the action of the suspect contributed to tarnishing the goodwill of the company and produced irreparable harm to its reputation.