Bahrain court orders five years in jail, hefty fines for financial fraud

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The High Criminal Court yesterday awarded fiveyear jail terms each to two people for running an investment scam.

The court also ordered to confiscate BD1,162,000.30 and BD200.97 from the first accused. BD1,232,530 from the two companies, and BD365,352 and BD700.19 from the second defendant.

The court also slapped a BD1,000 fine on both the accused and ordered them to jointly pay the plaintiffs a total of BD6,600 as temporary civil compensations.

Court files say the two people - one of the suspects an Arab national - took funds from people to invest through two companies owned by one of them.

However, investigators found that the accused didn’t have the necessary licences to offer that kind of service in the Kingdom.

The Public Prosecution opened an investigation following a report from the Financial Intelligence Department on several people losing money, exceeding BD1,100,000 in a financial scam.

The report said the suspects hoodwinked the people into investing in their unlicensed companies.

The money was then sent to locations outside Bahrain through several accounts to conceal its origin and make it legitimate.

The Public Prosecution, following an investigation, decided to seize the accounts operated by the suspects, their money and property belonging to the two companies.

Investigators also tracked the funds to the second accused outside Bahrain, who worked to conceal the source of the funds.