FOUR men jailed for three years each for laundering more than BD700,000 have lost their final appeals.
The defendants – two Bahrainis, an Egyptian and a Sudanese – were also ordered to pay BD200,000 each by the Cassation Court, which found them guilty yesterday.
The men were jailed by the Lower Criminal Court in December 2019 for embezzling more than BD700,000 from a travel agency.
A 46-year-old Bahraini, who worked as a secretary to board members of the agency, gave forged cheques worth BD702,000 to his co-defendants over a four-year period from 2016 to 2019.
The cheques were supposed to be given as profits to investors in the travel agency. However, the 46-year-old forged signatures and pocketed the money, according to court documents.
He then deposited it in bank accounts of five companies – two of which he owned in partnership with his Egyptian co-defendant; the three others were owned by his accomplices.
The fraud came to light after investors complained to the agency about unshared profits. An investigation led to the arrest of five suspects.
The Lower Criminal Court sentenced the 46-year-old Bahraini and the 50-year-old Sudanese to five years each for embezzlement and forgery. The others were sentenced to two years each for aiding and abetting the crime.
However, following their convictions, prosecutors filed another case at the High Criminal Court charging them with money laundering.
The court jailed them for three years.
Four men filed an appeal against the conviction at the Cassation Court, which yesterday upheld the earlier verdict.
“The defendants placed the embezzled money in their bank accounts in an attempt to legitimise its sources,” read the final ruling.
“They lost their final appeals due to sufficient evidence against them.”
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