38 held in Dh635M bank heist
abu dhabi — A gang of 38 persons suspected of stealing Dh635 million from the account of an Abu Dhabi bank through electronic transfer has been arrested.
The Abu Dhabi Financial Prosecution, in coordination with Abu Dhabi Police’s Criminal Investigation Department, managed to foil the plot of the suspects to get away with the loot after unlawfully transferring the funds from the account of the bank.
The authorities said on Wednesday that they have also managed to recover Dh625 million within 24 hours after getting information about the fraud. The suspects of Asian and European nationalities were detained before they could leave the country.
According to police officials, a local bank reported an unusual withdrawal of huge amounts of money from one of its accounts.
Investigations revealed that a bank employee accessed the bank’s electronic system using the password of another employee, and transferred the cash totalling Dh635 million to accounts of five companies in five different banks in the UAE.
The transfer of the funds was reportedly carried out by executing the transfer orders during the morning, shortly after the bank’s electronic system had been opened.
And when authorities tracked down the transferred cash after being alerted, they found out that
the amounts had been wired to the bank accounts of five major companies, including several subsidiary companies across the country. Investigation also showed that there was a chain of organised network of various parties in the deal.
The Financial Public Prosecution has issued an order to freeze the bank accounts where the cash was transferred, in addition to the seizure of 6,000 mobile phones worth about Dh10 million that were purchased by the suspects using part of the stolen funds.
Abu Dhabi Attorney-General Ali Mohammed Al Beloushi said the suspects will be charged with unlawful transfer of the bank’s funds using means of information technology, which is under the Federal Penal Code No. 7 of 2016 and the Federal Law No.5 of 2012 on Combating Electronic Crimes.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com