Dubai: A man has been sentenced to three years in jail for embezzling Dh7.5 million from his company. He was found to have bought a villa in Dubai and registering it under his name, a Dubai court heard on Monday.
The Canadian general manager of a Dubai engineering firm, who is still at large, was responsible for organising board of directors' meeting. He added a note to buy a villa in the final draft of one such meeting in October 2016.
The man's actions were later discovered and the company asked him to register the villa in the company’s name.
In addition to this the company, which paid the defendant Dh200,000 per year for his children’s education, discovered that the defendant had additionally obtained Dh269,345 from the education fees allowance over three years.
He also used company cars to take his children to school.
“He was appointed in the company in 2015, and illegally obtained Dh7.5 million from the company to buy a villa and register it under his name,” said an official from Financial Audit Authority who discovered the man’s crimes. “He claimed that he had a verbal agreement with the chairman of the board of directors to add the villa into the minutes of the meeting.”
The chairman of the board of directors denied that he verbally agreed to the villa and the accused was sacked.
Dubai Public Prosecution charged the defendant with illegally obtaining money from the company. He was additionally fined Dh7.9 million and ordered to be deported. A 59-year-old Egyptian engineer who was charged with aiding and abetting was acquitted.
