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A senior banker, who is on trial for allegedly stealing the identities – and savings – of elderly customers and impersonating them using a voice-altering app, has asked judges for mercy as his wife is very ill.
The 38-year-old Bahraini is accused of swindling more than BD136,000 from loyal clients, whose accounts and financial portfolios he was trusted with managing.
In a memo submitted to the High Criminal Court, the defendant’s lawyer stated that his client’s wife has stage four breast cancer, which has spread to her bones and other parts of her body.
He asked judges to release the man from jail until a verdict is issued in the case, as his wife is quite ill and cannot take care of their young children by herself. The ages of the children were not mentioned in court documents.
“Your Honours, the defendant’s wife is suffering from breast cancer, and is undergoing intensive treatment,” read the memo.
“Her condition is quickly deteriorating due to multiple sclerosis (MS).
“He has spent six months in remand. We beseech Your Honours to let the defendant go so he can be there for his family, and he promises to attend all the hearings of the case.”
Attached alongside the memo are medical reports detailing the dire status of the 37-year-old wife, with the oncologist who wrote the reports advising that she be granted retirement from her job. The court documents did not mention what she was working as, and where.
“The patient was diagnosed with relapsing MS, and has seen a recent progression in her breast cancer with more bone metastasis, for which she received bone radiation treatment,” read the report.
The GDN earlier reported that the Bahraini father allegedly targeted elderly customers, including a bed-bound, comatose man with dementia, a 90-year-old date farmer, as well as a clueless grandmother.
He has been accused of impersonating customers to access their bank accounts, then opening accounts in other banks under their names, so he could transfer their own funds to the new accounts which he controlled.
Prosecutors accused the executive of exploiting his position and seniority in the bank to access clients’ accounts in order to take their money.
He was charged with taking the alleged victims’ photos and CPR cards, in order to use them to remotely open accounts in two banks and two payment platforms, without their knowledge or consent.
Between the aforementioned three victims, he is accused of embezzling BD136,575 which they had deposited in the bank he works at, transferring them to the new accounts that he covertly opened.
The Public Prosecution further accused defendant with falsifying digital records, altering customers’ information, and gaining unrightful access to their accounts, intending to defraud them.
The man also reportedly kept files on potential targets in his house – bank clients aged between 60 and 80 – which included their personal information.
Through impersonating the bedridden client alone, the executive allegedly swindled BD61,000 of his money.
The client’s son, who is authorised to act on his behalf, testified about their ordeal.
“My dad is chronically ill, and he’s had Alzheimer’s disease since 2013, but it got much worse in 2022, and so he is not at all aware of his finances,” the Bahraini witness stated.
“At some point, we noticed that dad wasn’t receiving text messages from the bank on his phone, so I went to one of the branches, and I was told that the phone number on file had been changed.
As for the 90-year-old farmer, a random roadside encounter led him to cross paths with the defendant, as the man born in 1935 was selling dates on the side of the road near his Barbar farm.
“I was approached by a man, who said he’d take a picture of me so I could receive government benefits,” the nonagenarian stated.
“He asked for my CPR, and once I began getting suspicious of him, he told me, ‘Don’t be scared’. I didn’t end up receiving any benefits.”
A 75-year-old man, who has been a client of the international bank for the last 50 years, testified that the suspect was assigned as his account manager, and earlier took his picture with his phone.
During an audit, a former colleague of the banker’s who has since moved to a new bank, was able to identify his voice in recordings of attempts to open accounts for the alleged victims.
The case was forwarded to the National Audit Office, which carried out an extensive investigation into the defendant’s actions, and concluded that he was indeed committing fraud.
Authorities stated that a search of the defendant’s phone revealed that two voice-altering apps were installed on it.
Judges adjourned the hearing to September 14 for defence arguments.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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