A POLICE detective has revealed details in the trial of two Bahraini brothers accused of duping people of more than BD1 million in forex trading.
He was testifying in the High Criminal Court yesterday as the two men, aged 30 and 35, are facing charges of fraud, being part of a trading scam, and embezzling large amounts of money from 38 people of different nationalities.
The defendants reportedly collected the money from the victims after tricking them into investing more than BD1m in the foreign exchange market with a promise of substantial profits.
The police detective told the court that some of the victims made profits for a few months but the suspects stopped giving them money and refused to pay them back.
An investigation revealed that the defendants did not have a licence to collect money and they claimed they owned a real estate company which proved to be fake.
“The defendants tricked their victims into believing their business was legitimate through which they collected more than BD1m, which they pocketed,” said the Bahraini witness.
“The defendants frequently collected money without a licence and tricked their victims into believing they were going to give them large returns for their investment.”
One of the victims told prosecutors during the investigation that he coughed up BD20,000 to one of the defendants, aged 30, because he believed the brothers ran a legal trading firm.
Trust
“I was told I would make thousands of dinars in profit but I never thought it was a scam,” said the 45-year-old Bahraini in his statement to the Public Prosecution.
“One of the defendants said if I gave him BD20,000 I will easily make double that money in less that a year, so I gave him all my money and trusted him because other people told me that he was trustworthy.
“He gave me back a couple of thousand dinars before fleeing with the rest of my money.”
The two defendants have been released on bail pending a verdict. The trial was adjourned until February 26 for review.
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