Embezzlement: Court overturns conviction

Manama : The Supreme Appeals Court has overturned the conviction of an ex-colonel in the Intelligence in connection with an embezzlement case. 

The Bahraini man was handed down earlier three years’ imprisonment by the High Criminal Court, which found him guilty of embezzling an amount of BD1,250,000 from overseas investors, who were seeking to launch a poultry company in the Kingdom. 

The investors reportedly teamed-up with the defendant as local regulations were denying foreigners to operate companies in Bahrain without local partners. 

According to court files, the suspect pledged to pour in BD10m to co-found the project. However, he allegedly deposited the money they had paid to him to found the project in his account and then ignored them. 

Prosecutors said that the defendant had spent all the money he received from the plaintiffs. 

In its ruling, the Supreme Appeals Court highlighted that an expert’s report had confirmed that the defendant spent the money he received for buying equipment and land plot for the project. 

“The investors’ representative was aware of all the operations.”

It also underlined that a Civil Court had already ordered the defendant to pay back the investors’ money and this ruling is being carried out. “Thus the court decided to acquit the defendant of any wrongdoing,” the court ruling read.