Abu Dhabi Court convicts 13 defendants and 7 companies of "money laundering" crimes

The Criminal Court competent to hear money laundering and tax evasion crimes in Abu Dhabi convicted 13 Indian defendants and seven companies owned by them of committing the crime of money laundering obtained from practicing an economic activity related to the provision of credit facilities through point-of-sale devices without obtaining a license from the competent authorities, with a total amount of AED 510 million.

The court sentenced in attendance to 4 defendants, and in absentia the rest of the fugitive defendants, with prison sentences ranging from five to ten years, confiscation of seized funds, deportation of convicts from the state after the execution of the sentence, with a fine ranging from five to ten million dirhams, and fining convicted companies ten million dirhams.

The facts of the case are summarized in the formation of a gang organization by the defendants to commit a crime of practicing an activity related to the economic system to provide credit facilities without a license from the competent authorities, using POS devices belonging to several companies, at the headquarters of a travel institution chosen as the headquarters for practicing that criminal activity, and making fake purchases from the devices of companies established for this purpose, or by some of the defendants exploiting the powers granted to them to deal with the bank accounts of companies owned by others without the knowledge of their owners, in exchange for deducting a percentage For the benefit of the company that owns and uses the POS terminal for each withdrawal.

The investigations of the Public Prosecution and the minutes of collecting evidence showed that the criminal formation of the headquarters of the travel establishment owned by two of the defendants was exploited to conduct cash disbursements from credit cards to customers wishing to do so, by making fake purchases through the POS machines of the companies owned by the defendants.

This is either by disbursing the amount in cash by making a purchase from the customer's credit card for the benefit of companies that were established only to issue these devices from banks for their account, with an additional amount deducted as interest, and handing over the remaining amount to the customer in cash, and the other way is by paying the customer's debts incurred on his card by depositing cash amounts in the account, then making another fake purchase and deducting the interest amount.

The reports of banking transactions and financial analysis issued by the Financial Information Unit also showed that there was high inflation of funds in the bank accounts of the defendants and their companies, within a short period of time, which is impossible to occur from such activity if each of them practiced it in a legitimate manner, in addition to the conduct of multiple financial operations on such funds by withdrawal, deposit and transfer with the intention of concealing their origin.