Gang of 33 accused of illegally transferring Dh635M from bank

abu dhabi — A gang of 33 men accused of attempting to steal Dh635 million from the account of an Abu Dhabi bank through electronic transfer, have denied the charges.

The men, including Indians, Pakistanis, Americans, Russians and Canadians, are on trial at the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance for unlawfully transferring the funds from the account at a local bank using sophisticated technology.

Official court documents stated that the Abu Dhabi Financial Prosecution, in coordination with the Abu Dhabi Police’s CID, had managed to recover Dh625 million of the total cash from the victims’ bank accounts within 24 hours after getting information about the fraud.

Police arrested the defendants in June after investigations suggested that they were involved in the financial fraud before they left the country.

Prosecutors said that a local bank had reported an unusual withdrawal of huge amounts of money from its account.

Investigations revealed that

When authorities tracked down the transferred cash after being alerted, they found out that the amount had been wired to the bank accounts of five major companies.” Prosecutors

one of the defendants, 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.

“The transfer of the funds was carried out by executing the transfer orders during the morning, shortly after the bank’s electronic system had been opened,” said prosecutors.

“When authorities tracked down the transferred cash after being alerted, they found out that the amount had been wired to the bank accounts of five major companies, including several subsidiary companies across the various emirates.”

Investigations also showed that there was a chain of organised networks of various parties in the deal.

The Financial Public Prosecution had issued an order to freeze the bank accounts into which the cash was transferred, in addition to the seizure of 6,000 pieces of mobile phones worth about Dh10 million that were purchased by the suspects using part of the stolen funds.

The men were charged with fraud and unlawful transfer of the bank’s funds using means of information technology.

25 of the men have appeared at the court for the first hearing in their trial and all denied the charges.

Nine lawyers have been appointed to represent the men.

Ali Al-Hammadi, the defense lawyer for the 9th and 10th defendants told court that one his clients had immediately contacted the bank after receiving a message on his mobile phone that Dh50 million had been deposited into his account but the customer service people didn’t know the source of the money.

“My client is innocent and should be cleared,” said the lawyer.

The trial was adjourned until November 14.

ismail@khaleejtimes.com