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All the witnesses have been heard in a court case against a well-known businessman and three of his company’s top officials, who have been accused of embezzling more than BD6 million from investors.
The four Bahraini defendants – the company’s owner, chief executive and two board members – were present at the High Criminal Court yesterday.
They earlier denied charges of fraud, forgery and money laundering, along with allegations of defrauding more than 350 victims who invested in the main defendant’s business empire.
Over the course of the trial, several witnesses were cross-examined by lawyers and the Public Prosecution, including a company manager, a Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) representative and a police detective.
Yesterday, a board member, a financial controller at the company and an investor gave their testimonies.
The investor defended the ‘trustworthiness and honesty’ of one of the accused in the case.
“The fourth defendant and I have an old friendship,” the Bahraini man told judges.
“I put money in two of the investment offerings he was handling and I know that he would never do anything to harm me financially or steal from me.”
“I entered these two contracts of my own free will. All the required information was presented to me before I signed on, and the details were clear from the beginning.
“I chose to invest with them because the company is licensed and the names behind it have a great reputation.
“Unfortunately, one of the investments matured in June and I didn’t get my money back yet, while the other will mature in December. I hope something is done about this.”
The investment company implicated in the case is owned by the main suspect’s highly-successful parent company.
A tip from the National Centre for Financial Investigations sparked a criminal probe into it.
The businessman was accused of tricking investors through bogus deals and then using the allegedly embezzled money to pay off debts and loans.
Prosecutors allege that he committed a number of ‘suspicious acts’, including issuing dud cheques, making unjustified withdrawals and off-the-book payments.
“He used the name of several CRs as a pretence, falsely claiming that their owners needed funding to grow their ventures, then presented them as investment opportunities to his targets,” the prosecution claimed. When the investors agreed to finance the businesses, he swindled the money they put in, using the funds to his own advantage, carrying out transactions to lend them legitimacy.”
According to the Public Prosecution, investigations uncovered that the three other defendants knew about the scheme, but did not alert investors, thereby enabling the owner to pocket the money.
The CBB audit stated that the defendant authored and signed the cheques and addressed them to his name.
The businessman’s assets were frozen, and the prosecution appointed a manager to administer his holdings.
Three attorneys, representing the 352 alleged victims, requested court documents, so they can pursue civil litigation after the trial ends, should the defendants be convicted of charges.
November 17 has been set as the date for attorneys to present their defence arguments in court.
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