A commercial bank manager accused of a fraudulent AED10 million personal loan has been sentenced to five years in prison and issued with a AED2 million fine in absentia by a Dubai Court, according to local media reports.
According to Sharjah-based Gulf Today, the manager, who was tasked with managing the account of high-net worth customers, convinced an Emirati businessman to open an account, but used the data to produce a fake copy of a mortgage contract showing real estate in Abu Dhabi as surety.
The bank manager was accused of also forging the businessman’s signature and using a bogus approval letter to convince the bank to deposit cash into his account.
He then withdrew money using an ATM card that he had promised to deliver to the Emirati. Additionally, he was accused of using a fake cash transfer letter to transfer AED240,000 to a complicit sales woman.
Over time, the sales woman withdrew AED1,250,028 from the account.
“I have nothing to do with the money,” she said in court before being sentenced to six months in prison without deportation.
The bank manager has since fled the country. The sales woman said she believed she was helping his wife open an account.
“She was not aware they were exploiting her. They took the money and they fled,” her lawyer said in court. “She did not benefit from it at all. In case she is ordered to refund it, she will never manage, even if for the rest of her life.”
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