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Three expatriates accused of running a fraudulent investment and cryptocurrency scheme and scamming 12 people out of more than BD444,000 will learn their fate later this month.
A marketing and management company, which the suspects allegedly used as a front to launder their ill-begotten funds, is also on trial at the High Criminal Court as an ‘artificial person’ and is the fourth defendant in the case.
A financial audit report of the company was submitted to the court, during the latest hearing, and included key information on where the funds were taken from and where they were transferred to.
Judges heard that the accused – two Ukrainians and a Moroccan – ran advertisements on social media to find unwitting preys and offered attractive investments in gold, petrol and digital currencies.
The 12 victims claim that they handed over their life savings to the slick, smooth-talking suspects, only to later realise that their hard-earned money has disappeared into thin air.
Only the 51-year-old Moroccan cook appeared before judges and denied allegations of money laundering, claiming that he himself was tricked into assisting the Europeans in the scam.
The Ukrainians have reportedly fled the country in anticipation of getting caught. They allegedly started a business to use its bank accounts to launder money and give legitimacy to their scheme.
The court heard that the duo, a 45-year-old woman and 47-year-old man, tricked Bahraini citizens into forking over huge amounts of cash, promising high profits and fast results.
An Interior Ministry official earlier highlighted an investigation by the National Centre for Financial Intelligence which revealed that the company involved in the alleged scam had ‘no Central Bank of Bahrain licence to buy and trade in shares or digital currency’.
“The accused convinced those who clicked on their adverts to invest with them, creating a digital wallet and updating the victims with supposed increases in the value of their investment,” the official added.
“At first, they gave some small returns to the victims, but eventually took all the money to themselves.
“They did these things outside of Bahrain to avoid legal consequences, and then laundered the stolen money using international wire transfers to countries like Spain, Poland and the UAE.”
The officer added that the Ukrainians recruited the Moroccan man to use his personal bank accounts to receive money from the victims and then relay it to them. He allegedly handled a total of BD83,711 on their behalf, while his Ukrainian accomplices received BD444,291 from unsuspecting victims.
In a previous hearing, the 51-year-old cook claimed that he was tricked by an Arab man residing in the UK to help out with the illicit scheme and had not known about the illegal nature of the activities.
“I was asked by a man to help him in transferring funds,” he told judges in his first hearing. “I did not launder money on purpose.”
According to an allegedly-scammed Bahraini businessman, the individuals behind the scheme told him that they were operating from Cyprus. A search of the defendants’ names showed business records registered in the woman’s name in Cyprus.
Judges set August 26 as the day a verdict will be announced in the case.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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