A silver-tongued conman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for scamming a wealthy Emirati, a Saudi and a Bahraini out of nearly BD2 million.
The High Criminal Court yesterday found the Bahraini self-styled businessman guilty of collecting and receiving funds from his victims, to invest and manage, without a permit from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
He was also convicted of stealing the victims’ money, which was given to him for safekeeping, causing harm to those who trusted him.
The court fined him BD100,000, ordered the confiscation of any profit generated from the scam, and ruled that he must return the money to his victims, along with BD7,000 in damages to be shared among the three.
“The defendant took more than BD1,600,000 from me, and promised to invest it in real estate, cars, rare licence plate numbers and watches,” the Dubai-based victim told the Public Prosecution.
“In 2020, he would often visit me in Dubai, trying to convince me to let him invest my money,” the 54-year-old businessman said.
“Between 2020 and 2024, I gave him huge amounts of money through wire transfers, on the condition that everything was registered in my name, and that he would deposit the profits in an account belonging to me.
“I eventually discovered there was no money. I also found out that he neither bought anything in my name nor opened the bank account, even though I gave him full power-of-attorney to do so.
“When I asked him to return the money, he stalled and started coming up with weak excuses.”
Another wealthy businessman was similarly deceived, but his losses were minimal compared to the Emirati victim.
“I first met the defendant in the Emirati man’s majlis, where he was asking him to pump more money into his projects, but he said he had none,” the Saudi from Dammam told prosecutors.
“I asked him why he needed the money, and he told me about all-new projects next to Bahrain City Centre in Manama, including a seafront padel and jet ski business.”
Although the Saudi man did not trust him initially since he did not know him, the defendant continued visiting the victim at his house in Dammam to invite him to invest with him, eventually winning him over.
The witty con artist reportedly told the victim: “It won’t be a year until you get the entire amount back, with cherries on top,” though the two never agreed on the terms, or how the profits will be disbursed.
“He presented me with financial reports and documents and we went to Al Khobar together, where he showed me property and real estate he could work on, and so I sent him BD100,000 over two transfers.
“As he was stalling, I knew he was having issues and began suspecting his business. Over the course of two years, he returned BD95,000, with no profits to speak of. Then, communications between us stopped and he disappeared.”
The third victim, a 32-year-old Bahraini public relations executive, was also persuaded by the defendant’s persistence and was promised that his money would be doubled under his stewardship.
The defendant showed him projects and under-construction homes in Zinj and Bahrain Bay, and the Bahraini handed over BD45,000.
He gave the executive a BD100,000 cheque, telling him to cash it a year later.
Come payday, no money materialised, but the fraud did not stop there.
The suspect further persuaded the Bahraini to hand over two unique licence plates, falsely promising to put them on fancy cars and to give the cars to him as profit.
Upon confrontation, he reportedly started crying and convinced the executive to return the BD100,000 cheque. After he got it back, the defendant reportedly said, “I have nothing for you.”
During questioning by the Public Prosecution, the man said he did not possess a CBB licence for investments.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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