Media ININ Economy We Trust
ABU DHABI, May 18 / The Criminal Court specialized in examining money laundering and tax evasion crimes in Abu Dhabi convicted 13 suspects of Asian nationality, and seven companies owned by them, of committing the crime of money laundering obtained from practicing an economic activity related to providing credit facilities through point-of-sale machines without obtaining obtaining a license from the competent authorities, with a total amount of 510 million dirhams.
The court ruled in the presence of 4 defendants, and in absentia the rest of the defendants who escaped, with prison sentences ranging from five to ten years, confiscation of seized funds, and deportation of the convicts from the country after serving the penalty, with a fine ranging between five and ten million dirhams, and a fine of ten million to the convicted companies. dirhams.
The facts of the case are summarized in the formation of the accused as a gang organization to commit the crime of practicing an activity related to the economic system to provide credit facilities without a license from the competent authorities, using point-of-sale devices of several companies, at the headquarters of a travel institution that was chosen as a location for practicing that criminal activity, and making purchases. Fake machines from the companies that were established for this purpose, or by some of the defendants exploiting the powers granted to them to deal on the bank accounts of companies owned by others without the knowledge of their owners, in return for deducting a percentage in favor of the company that owns and uses the POS device for each withdrawal.
The investigations of the Public Prosecution and the records of evidence collection showed that the criminal formation of the headquarters of the travel agency owned by two of the defendants was exploited to conduct cash payments from credit cards to customers who wish to do so, by carrying out fake purchases through point-of-sale devices of the companies owned by the defendants. This is either by spending the amount in cash by making a purchase from the customer’s credit card in favor of the companies that were established only to issue these devices from banks for their account, with deducting an additional amount as interest, and handing the customer the remaining amount in cash, and the other method is by paying the customer’s debts incurred on his card by depositing amounts Cash in the account, then make another imaginary purchase and deduct the interest amount.
The reports of banking transactions and financial analysis issued by the Financial Information Unit also showed that there was a high inflation of funds in the bank accounts of the defendants and their companies, within a short period of time, which would be impossible for such activity to occur if each of them practiced it in a legal way, in addition to conducting multiple financial operations on that money. Withdrawal, deposit and transfer with the intention of concealing its source.
