Ten white-collar workers have been found guilty of defrauding the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) and the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) to unlawfully obtain BD230,000.
The Bahraini defendants – four of whom are siblings – faced six charges of forgery and using falsified documents for their own profit.
Two main suspects, who are brothers, were identified as company owners who submitted fake employment contracts in order to receive BD90,000 from the SIO and BD140,000 from Tamkeen.
The High Criminal Court sentenced them to 10 years in prison and fined BD100,000 each, on charges of intentionally providing false information to both organisations, by adding new employees to their commercial registration (CR) records to fraudulently benefit from social insurance.
Eight other defendants were sentenced to a year in prison and fined BD500 each for performing various acts of fraud to aid and abet the two brothers.
They reportedly created sham work contracts corresponding to the shell companies, in which the personal information of real people was paired with fake salaries and forged signatures.
They were further charged with using the forged documents with knowledge of their made-up nature, in support of the greater scheme orchestrated by the brothers.
Finally, all 10 defendants were convicted with successfully pulling off the embezzlement scheme, using the aforementioned methods of trickery and dishonesty.
According to the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution, the alterations resulted in the creation of fake employment records and unearned years of service, which can be cashed in by the insured individuals.
This enabled the defendants to undeservedly receive retirement pensions, end-of-service benefits and one-time compensation payments.
The Public Prosecution received a report about the fraud, and ordered travel bans to be placed on the suspects, froze their bank accounts and assets, and issued arrest warrants against them.
Eight CRs were implicated in this scheme, with a total of 33 companies or branches under them. All the CRs have been since deactivated for non-renewal of registration, or were cancelled by the owners.
Six of the eight CRs were owned by the siblings, while two CRs were owned by seemingly-unrelated individuals – one Pakistani and one Saudi.
The 33 companies specialise in all sorts of services, including marketing and promotion, stationery and office supplies, food transportation, computer programming, library and archiving activities.
The companies also specialise in document clearance, management consultancy, real estate management and brokerage, construction, sale of construction materials and industrial cleaning services.
The CRs were headquartered in various areas around the country, including Hamala, Malkiya, Demistan, Nuwaidrat, Ma’ameer, Buri, Ramli, Saar, Barbar, Maqsha, Manama and Busaiteen.
Out of the 10 defendants, three were male and seven were female, all working office jobs such as an executive, manager, treasurer, real estate agent, secretary, office assistant and data entry clerk. They all denied the charges.
A report by a forgery expert stated that some of the contracts submitted by the defendants were not genuine.
Tamkeen has urged people to report any violations they come across, either on its whistleblowing form on the website: tamkeen.bh/whistleblower-form, whistleblowing hotline 17383383, or email address report@tamkeen.bh.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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