Bahraini businesswoman accused of embezzlement

A Bahraini businesswoman has been charged with embezzlement in Oman after local investors filed complaints with the Royal Oman Police.

According to Royal Oman Police sources, Faiza.K. and her Omani partner are facing charges of embezzlement and breach of trust following complaints from investors. "She and her partner are currently on bail," a police spokesman, who preferred not to be named, said yesterday.

Faiza and her Omani partner were conducting their business in Muscat. According to the police, they lured Omani citizens into giving them money for investing outside the country.

The brokerage firm is a registered company with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry but not licensed by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in Oman or Muscat Securities Market (MSM) to conduct brokerage business in the local stock exchange.

"It would be difficult to say the amount of money allegedly embezzled by the accused," the police source said. He, however, added that one Omani had placed 75,000 rials with them for investing in overseas market.

Faiza and her partner are accused of keeping the money with them instead of investing it as required by agreements with investors.

Faiza, who is on bail, said at the Bahrain Embassy in Muscat, "I will come to you with my side of the story." However, further attempts to contact her proved futile.

Faiza and her Omani partner is now awaiting the court case.

According to sources at the MSM the amount involved in the case could be more than $100,000.

Ahmed A. Al Hooti of the MSM said the firm was neither registered with the MSM nor with the CMA to do brokerage business in Oman.

"We even ran a check on all the registered companies to see if this woman was working with any of them but we found out that she had no association with any of the registered companies," Al Hooti added.