The director of a shelter for homeless people is on trial for embezzling more than BD190,000 from the Social Development Ministry and laundering more than BD97,000.
In his first hearing at the High Criminal Court yesterday, the public servant denied charges of fraud, theft, money laundering, forgery and raising funds without a permit.
The 64-year-old Bahraini allegedly stole public funds through many methods, including re-directing cheques meant for the shelter to his personal accounts.
He allegedly solicited donations from organisations and wealthy individuals without obtaining a permit from the ministry, collecting nearly BD90,000.
Prosecutors accused him of taking some of the financial and in-kind donations for himself, by asking employees to deliver Ramadan donation baskets and vouchers to his home instead of giving them to the needy.
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.
Another Bahraini man, the owner of a cleaning company, is standing trial alongside the shelter director, after being accused of aiding the latter to set up a misleading contract for cleaning the shelter, and helping him steal government money.
Court documents broke down the total amounts he was accused of embezzling. He was accused of:
– Exploiting his authority as director to illegally take BD192,351 of ministry support for the shelter.
– Raising 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.
– Taking for himself subsidies from the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) meant as wage support for employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, and not disbursing them to employees.
– Laundering BD97,725 gained from committing the above crimes, to make the funds appear legitimate, and to throw off authorities investigating the alleged fraud – BD72,705 by using well-meaning employees and officials, and BD25,020 allegedly laundered through the cleaning contractor.
The alleged embezzlement was caught by a ministry official who was tasked with running services related to families which are homeless or experiencing extreme hardship.
“I was auditing the admin work and operating costs of the social care centre when I noticed several infractions, both financial and administrative,” she told prosecutors, listing the various incidents and methods of alleged fraud.
An officer of the National Centre for Financial Intelligence also testified that the defendant’s personal bank accounts showed noticeable inflation, with large amounts of money being deposited into it regularly, describing the account’s activity as ‘unnatural’.
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.
Judges adjourned the trial to September 7 for defence responses and requests.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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