The director of a homeless shelter has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for embezzling more than BD190,000 from the Social Development Ministry and laundering more than BD97,000.
The High Criminal Court found the 64-year-old Bahraini public servant guilty of fraud, theft, money laundering, forgery and raising funds without a permit.
For the embezzlement charges, he was ordered to return BD192,351 to the shelter, was fined an additional BD192,351, and the court ruled to confiscate BD89,846 from his assets.
For the money laundering charges, the court further fined him BD100,000 and ruled to confiscate BD97,725 from his assets.
The defendant stole public funds through many methods, including re-directing cheques meant for the shelter to his personal accounts.
He also solicited donations from organisations and wealthy individuals without obtaining a permit from the ministry, collecting nearly BD90,000.
His co-defendant, a Bahraini cleaning contractor who reportedly aided him in stealing government money by setting up a misleading contract to service the facility, was sentenced to a year in prison.
The court earlier heard that the elderly shelter director took some of the financial and in-kind donations for himself, by asking employees to deliver Ramadan goodie baskets and vouchers to his home instead of giving them to the needy.
He was further charged with using the shelter’s funds for purposes other than what was originally stated, including giving bonuses and Eidiyas to employees and throwing parties for the shelter’s residents.
The shelter, which has been open since 2007, welcomes families whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by fires or flooding, along with individuals caught soliciting aid on the streets.
As of last October, the social care centre was home for a total of 41 men and 54 women.
The embezzlement was uncovered by a ministry official who was tasked with running services related to families which are homeless or experiencing extreme hardship.
She told the Public Prosecution that she was auditing the social care centre when she noticed several infractions, both financial and administrative.
Court documents broke down the total amounts he embezzled. The court heard that he had
- Exploited his authority as director to illegally take BD192,351 of ministry support for the shelter.
- Raised BD89,845 for the shelter, which is run by a governmental body, without a licence, which were received as BD54,250 through cheques and BD35,595 via wire transfers.
- Took for himself subsidies from the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) meant as wage support for employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, and did not disburse them to employees.
- Laundered BD97,725 gained from committing the above crimes, in order to make the funds appear legitimate, and to throw off authorities who were investigating the fraud – BD72,705 by using well-meaning employees and officials, and BD25,020 laundered through the cleaning contractor.
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