Accountant denies crediting account with Dh23m for Dh450,000 bribe

Exchange company accountant took money, clothes and a mobile phone in return for forging reports of Dh23m deposit, court told.

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DUBAI // The head accountant of an exchange company has denied falsely crediting a client's company with Dh23 million in exchange for a Dh450,000 bribe.

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance heard yesterday that AS, a 37-year-old from India, took money, clothes and a mobile phone from AM, the representative of a large company, in return for forging reports that AM's company had deposited the Dh23m in the bank account of the exchange house.

OH, the manager of Al Fardan Exchange, testified that AS had worked with Al Fardan for seven years and that his responsibilities included issuing reports of money deposits.

He said that forged reports allowed AM to withdraw amounts that had not been deposited with Al Fardan. This took place over a period of nine months in 2009.

OH said that audits had uncovered the discrepancy.

He said that when he discovered the scam he called AS, who was in India at the time, and questioned him. He said that AS admitted the crime and said he had done it "for the money".

Investigators said that when arrested, AS told them that AM paid him to forge the reports.

Charges of criminal complicity against an operations manager, a customer service agent and an operations employee from Al Fardan were dismissed following prosecution investigations.

AM, who has not been found by police, faces charges of offering a bribe and embezzling money.

AK, another head accountant at Al Fardan Exchange, said that AS had been handling the accounts of 17 branches of the company in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman. He said AS had uploaded bogus deposit documents to Al Fardan's computer system to cover the embezzlements.

The next hearing will be on March 22.

salamir@thenational.ae