Two men who allegedly operated two bogus advertising companies are on trial at the High Criminal Court, along with three women accused of signing on as fake employees to claim social insurance benefits.
The five Bahraini defendants are accused of defrauding the government of more than BD6,000 in unlawfully-awarded social insurance benefits.
The court heard that the men set up the operation which allowed the women to cash out from the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) after being granted a lumpsum ‘one-time payment request’.
A 41-year-old defendant has been charged with intentionally entering false information into the SIO website, thereby falsifying official records with the intent of making it appear legitimate.
He allegedly added the information for the bogus employment of 55 individuals, with fake salaries for job roles they were not occupying, including the three female co-defendants.
The other male suspect, aged 53, was charged with providing his alleged accomplice with forged work contracts containing false information to complete the employment procedures and enable the bogus insurees to gain access to benefits.
The two were accused of collaborating with the women to receive unearned benefits, and personally defrauding the SIO of BD3,200.
The female defendants, aged 30 and 32, were accused of each cashing out a BD830 and BD480 one-time payment from the SIO respectively, based on years of employment counted in their favour that they did not actually serve.
A 31-year-old was also allegedly awarded BD1,890 in unemployment aid.
Although court documents stated that the Bahraini men were in some capacity responsible for the operations of the companies, records on the Sijilat commercial registration (CR) platform show that they neither own the firms nor are listed as official signatories.
The majority of the shares of the two publicity and advertising firms are owned by a Pakistani citizen, while 12 other shareholders from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India each own a small percentage of the shares.
The terms of lumpsum compensation are dictated in the 1976 Social Insurance Law, which has been amended over the years to include new categories and to be more up to date with social trends.
Insurees eligible for a lumpsum compensation are those who do not qualify for a pension. They must be in at least one of these categories: men over 60, women over 55, women who are either married, divorced or widowed, individuals who have become totally disabled, and those who have permanently left the country.
Other categories include people who have received a prison sentence of 10 years or longer, those who have been jobless for five years, those who are a beneficiary in another insurance system, or have been running a business for one year since their employment ended.
In the case of death, the heirs of the deceased may claim a one-time payment.
The trial has been adjourned to Sunday for defence responses and requests.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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