The director of a homeless shelter sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzling more than BD190,000 from the Social Development Ministry – then laundering half the amount – has taken to the appeals court to contest the guilty verdict.
Last October, the High Criminal Court convicted the 64-year-old Bahraini public servant of fraud, theft, money laundering, forgery and raising funds without a permit.
For the embezzlement charges, he was ordered to return BD192,351 to the shelter, was fined an additional BD192,351, and the court ruled to confiscate BD89,846 from his assets.
For the money laundering charges, the court further fined him BD100,000 and ruled to confiscate BD97,725 from his assets.
He has lodged an appeal at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court, with a verdict expected to be issued on Sunday.
His co-defendant, a Bahraini cleaning contractor who reportedly aided him in stealing government money by setting up a misleading contract to service the facility, was sentenced to a year in prison.
According to the initial verdict, the defendant stole public funds through many methods, including re-directing cheques meant for the shelter to his personal accounts.
He took some of the financial and in-kind donations for himself, by asking employees to deliver Ramadan goodie baskets and vouchers to his home instead of giving them to the needy.
He also solicited donations from organisations and wealthy individuals without obtaining a permit from the ministry, collecting nearly BD90,000.
He was further charged with using the shelter’s funds for purposes other than what was originally stated, including giving bonuses and Eidiyas to employees and throwing parties for the shelter’s residents.
The shelter, which has been open since 2007, welcomes families whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by fires or flooding, along with individuals caught soliciting aid on the streets.
As of last October, the social care centre was home for a total of 41 men and 54 women. Since the Iranian aggression on Bahrain, several families whose homes have been damaged were granted sanctuary in the shelter.
The embezzlement was uncovered during an audit by a ministry official, tasked with running services related to families experiencing hardship, who noticed several infractions on record, both financial and administrative.
Court documents broke down the total amounts he embezzled. The court heard that he had:
l Exploited his authority as director to illegally take BD192,351 of ministry support for the shelter.
l Raised BD89,845 for the shelter, which is run by a governmental body, without a licence, which were received as BD54,250 through cheques and BD35,595 via wire transfers.
l Took for himself subsidies from the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) meant as wage support for employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, and did not disburse them to employees.
l Laundered BD97,725 gained from committing the above crimes, in order to make the funds appear legitimate, and to throw off authorities who were investigating the fraud – BD72,705 by using well-meaning employees and officials, and BD25,020 laundered through the cleaning contractor.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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