Accountants, lawyers and investors packed a courtroom in Bahrain to watch as judges presided over the cross-examination of witnesses during a continuing major case of alleged embezzlement.
A well-known businessman and three of his company’s top officials are facing charges surrounding investments worth more than BD6 million.
Lawyers yesterday questioned two witnesses – a manager at the company and a Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) representative – during lengthy proceedings yesterday at the High Criminal Court.
The four Bahraini defendants – the company’s owner, chief executive and two board members – were all present at the hearing.
They have denied charges of fraud, forgery and money laundering, along with allegations of defrauding more than 350 victims after they invested in the supposedly-trustworthy defendant’s business empire.
The investment company, implicated in the case, is owned by the main suspect’s highly-successful parent company. All eight branches of the operation have been placed under sequester, according to commercial registration (CR) portal Sijilat.
The GDN earlier reported that a tip from National Centre for Financial Investigations sparked the investigation, which alleged that the suspects had tricked investors through bogus, falsified business deals.
“The centre had received a financial report indicating that the owner took a number of suspicious actions,” read the Public Prosecution’s statement. “He submitted dud cheques, withdrew funds from the company’s accounts with no apparent justification, and made payments that were not indicated in any written contracts.
“He used the name of several CRs as a pretence, falsely claiming that their owners needed funding to grow their ventures, then presented them as investment opportunities to his targets.
“When the investors agreed to finance the businesses, he swindled the money they put in, using the funds to his own advantage, carrying out transactions to lend them legitimacy.”
According to the Public Prosecution, investigations uncovered that the three other defendants knew of the scheme but did not alert investors, thereby enabling the owner to pocket the money.
The CBB audit stated that the defendant authored and signed the cheques, and addressed them to his name. He used the allegedly-embezzled money to pay off debts and loans, the court heard.
The businessman’s assets were frozen, and the prosecution appointed a manager to administrate his holdings. A travel ban was also placed to forbid him from leaving the country.
Three attorneys, representing the 352 alleged victims requested court documents, so they can pursue civil litigation after the trial ends.
Two more witnesses, including a police detective, will be heard next week.
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