Dubai court orders Dh3.9m repayment in email hacking scam

Dubai: The Dubai Civil Court of First Instance has ordered several individuals and companies to jointly repay Dh3.903 million to two maritime trading firms, after they were convicted in a final criminal ruling of fraud and money laundering stemming from a sophisticated cybercrime scheme.

The court also upheld a precautionary seizure on the defendants’ assets, citing the seriousness of the offence and the risk of dissipation of funds.

According to court records, the defendants operated as part of an organised criminal group, impersonating a maritime shipping company and using a forged email address closely resembling the firm’s official correspondence. The deception led the two victim companies to believe that the bank account designated for settling outstanding commercial payments had been changed, Emarat Al Youm reported.

As a result, Dh3.9 million was transferred from the victims’ accounts in a European country to a foreign bank account, before being moved to accounts belonging to companies owned by the defendants inside the UAE, in an attempt to conceal the source and nature of the funds.

The final judgment found that the defendants committed money laundering by channelling proceeds of an international cyber-fraud offence through multiple banking stages, demonstrating prior planning and detailed knowledge of financial systems. Individual defendants were sentenced to imprisonment, fines and deportation, while corporate entities were fined and the illicit funds confiscated.

Relying on the binding criminal judgment, the civil court ruled that the defendants were liable for a proven material loss, represented by the full amount misappropriated and the deprivation of its use or investment. The court awarded legal interest at 5 per cent from the date the ruling becomes final until full payment and ordered the defendants to pay court fees and costs.