Latest news with #BD41
Daily Tribune
28-03-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
Court upholds accountant's five-year sentence for pocketing academy trainee fees
The High Criminal Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a senior accountant for embezzling trainee fees intended for the Gulf Aviation Academy. The former financial controller was sentenced to five years in prison after diverting the academy's funds into his personal account. In addition to the jail term, he was fined BD41,777.759 and ordered to repay an equivalent amount to the institution. Civil claim The civil claim has been passed on to the appropriate court. He worked at the academy between January 2021 and April 2022. During that time, he transferred BD45,121 into his own bank account. The money should have gone to the academy. It had been paid by trainees. Transaction fees To pull it off, he fiddled with transaction dates, left out bank entries, and altered records in the academy's IT system. Reconciliation reports were doctored, sometimes using different formats, which made it harder to trace the missing money. He later resigned. But his exit didn't go unnoticed for long. A complaint landed with the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security. Statements The matter was passed to the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution, which began taking statements from academy staff and digging through the paperwork. It was enough to bring charges. Among those questioned was the academy's head of financial management and bank accounts. Shesaid her department had just two staff at the time — the defendant, who served as the senior accountant, and another employee who worked as an accounts coordinator. The latter had been tasked with preparing the secondary financial plan for 2022. In practice, this meant that day-to-day matters were left to the defendant. She once asked him how the monthly reconciliations were done. He replied that the coordinator prepared the figures and he simply signed them off. She tried to review the reconciliation for December 2021, but never managed it. Signature Still, she noticed that both her own signature and his were on the report. She went on leave after finalising the annual plan. Investigators later found that he had tampered with the digital records, apparently trying to cover his tracks. Civil proceedings to retrieve the funds are now in motion.
Daily Tribune
27-03-2025
- Daily Tribune
Fake ‘Quranic healer' jailed for land and money scam
A self-styled charlatan who claimed he could lift curses with 'blessed' honey and water has been jailed for five years after persuading a Bahraini couple to hand over their land, cars, cash and gold. The man, in his thirties, posed as a Quranic healer. He convinced his victims their property was bewitched and had to be transferred to his name to break the spell. Spiritual treatment He also demanded BD19,000 for supposed spiritual treatment, took gold jewellery worth BD7,000 from the wife, and drove off with two vehicles. Lawyer Zahraa Fardan, representing the victims, said she filed the laundering case precisely because the land had been sold and the money disappeared. 'He took the land, sold it, and the money vanished,' she said. 'The car in his name was actually paid for by my client.' Fardan said Public Prosecution accepted the conviction but objected to the seizure of the BD41,700 and the vehicles, arguing they belonged to the victims and should not be taken. The court agreed and cancelled the confiscation. The Appeals Court upheld his conviction for laundering the money he gained through fraud, and fined him BD50,000. Ruling However, judges cancelled an earlier ruling that had ordered the confiscation of BD41,700.411 and the two cars, deciding instead that they rightfully belonged to the victims. A separate civil case has been referred to determine compensation. As reported by The Daily Tribune last November, the case first came to light last year when the victims described how they were duped into believing their land was cursed and could only be 'cleansed' by handing it over.
