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An expatriate ‘investor’ allegedly faked his own death in an attempt to claim life insurance worth $500,000 (BD188,500) from his ex-employer, as revenge for unpaid wages.
The 44-year-old Pakistani man, along with his 46-year-old brother and wife, are on trial for allegedly forging a death certificate and using it to try to collect the payout.
However, a third brother appeared before the High Criminal Court to testify in the case, claiming that his sibling had truly passed away.
The court previously heard that the insurance firm hired detectives from a world-famous agency, Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, to find out whether or not their former employee was alive or dead.
Detectives trekked to the man’s hometown in Karachi and interviewed his sons, neighbours and even local gravediggers and a mosque imam and concluded that he was actually alive.
The 44-year-old was reported to the authorities and arrested, admitting to forging his own death certificate, in a video recording submitted to Bahrain’s courts.
However, his brother claimed otherwise. “I was shown the supposed confession of my brother, but the man in the video isn’t him – his voice is different! My brother died on May 27, 2023,” the Pakistani witness told judges.
“Me and my now-deceased brother weren’t on speaking terms, and I didn’t see him for eight or nine years before he died, even when he travelled to Bahrain.
“As for my older brother, the second defendant, he asked me for BD200 to help treat my then-sick brother in 2023, as he had suffered a stroke.
“He died soon after being discharged from hospital, and I received condolences even before the news of his death reached me.”
The brothers were accused of colluding with an unidentified accomplice to forge the death certificate, which was authenticated by various governmental entities in Pakistan and Bahrain.
The third defendant, the wife, used the verified certificate to lodge the claim with the European insurer and raised a lawsuit in court to bolster her claim, with judges’ ruling that she should be awarded the money.
The alleged scam came to light as the insurance company ‘sensed something suspicious’ about the claim and hired private investigators to ‘get to the bottom of the matter’.
According to the Public Prosecution, the insurance fraud attempt was thwarted ‘due to factors outside the defendants’ control,’ since the alleged plot was discovered before it came to fruition.
All three were charged with attempting to swindle money from the insurance firm.
The GDN earlier reported that in April 2023, the 44-year-old Pakistani visited the insurer’s headquarters to obtain a life insurance policy, with his wife as the beneficiary.
Four months after the policy was purchased, the insurance agent received a letter from an intermediary firm stating that the man had died – with two documents attached, including a death certificate.
The intermediary, however, warned the Dubai-based claims specialist that the claim appeared suspicious, and so the company tasked an American private investigation firm to look for the truth.
Pinkerton, in its report, recounted the investigations, and the discoveries were summarised by the Public Prosecution in court documents.
Experts from the investigation were outlined in court. It was alleged that as of March 2024, six months after the supposed death of the defendant, neighbours said that he was very much alive.
“As per Pinkerton, the defendant’s wife had notified authorities about his death, specifying that he died of a heart attack, but no autopsy was conducted,” prosecutors summarised.
“Upon inquiry, one of the defendant’s sons said he did not know the grave’s exact location as he did not attend the funeral.
“His other son, who signed the death certificate as a witness, appeared anxious when asked about his father, and claimed that he also did not know where the grave was.
“He told detectives that the defendant was buried in Manghopir Cemetery, located 7km from his home, even though there were two cemeteries closer to where he lived.”
The imam of the local mosque was asked about the supposed death and remarked that a funeral prayer would have been held to honour the man’s body, had he died in the area.
Detectives then went to the cemetery, and a graveyard manager stated that he had not come across the man’s name, while a gravedigger said he did not recall burying such an individual.
A Pakistani legal aide, working at the insurer’s office in Karachi, was asked to look into the death, and he went to the police to inquire about the man’s status.
He claimed the authorities’ database showed that the defendant had just signed a lease for a property in the city, and waited outside his apartment with the police, and he was arrested.
In a recorded police interview, he said he was an employee at the firm but was not paid his salary for five months, which led him to hatch a plan to take his revenge from the firm.
He schemed with his 46-year-old brother, a Bahraini citizen, that he would come to the kingdom for a while, buy a life insurance policy and then defraud the firm.
He reportedly admitted to bribing a government employee in Pakistan to help him with his plan, and further promised him a percentage of the proceeds once the plan was successfully executed.
Copies of the authenticated death certificate were attached to the case files, with official stamps from Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry and consulate in Karachi, and the Pakistani Embassy.
Judges set September 30 as the date a verdict will be issued in the case.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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