Saturday, Aug 20, 2016

Dubai: A high-ranking employee of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) has been charged with embezzling Dh500,000 from public funds and forging electronic official documents.

The Public Funds Prosecution in Dubai has referred the accused to the Criminal Court.

The suspect, who is of Asian origin, is accused of abusing his authority as DFM’s financial manager to profit from public funds after forging three cheques totalling nearly Dh2 million.

Esmail Madani, Head of the Public Funds Prosecution, said the Public Prosecution referred the employee after investigations showed that the suspect embezzled Dh500,000 after encashing one of the three cheaques and diverting the amount to his own account.

Madani said that the defendant sent a message via email to DFM’s Customer Service and asked them to send him three forms of cheques for each investor that are deposited in local bank accounts contracted by DFM.

“The accused made the staff of the Customer Service believe that the procedure was a mere experiment and a security test of the system. Due to his post as DFM’s financial manager, they believed him and sent him blank cheques,” said Madani.

He then put his name and the name of a former female employee of DFM as investors on financial statements and sent them to print, asking for three cheques bearing the logos of DFM, the investment company and the bank.

Madani explained that the DFM printer sent the suspect three blank cheques, one of which he used to embezzle the amount.

The suspect was questioned by Ahmad Murad Ahmad, chief public funds prosecutor, about the financial irregularities that he carried out by abusing his authority to steal public money.

The accused will be tried according to the Federal Penal Code and its provisions related to combating cybercrimes.

Staff Report

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