Civil suit shifts blame to four DIB officers in $501m fraud case

The defence lawyer representing two Dubai Islamic Bank executives accused of involvement in a US$501 million (Dh1.82 billion) fraud has filed a civil suit that pins the blame elsewhere.

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DUBAI // The defence lawyer representing two Dubai Islamic Bank executives accused of involvement in a US$501 million (Dh1.82 billion) fraud has filed a civil suit that pins the blame elsewhere. Dr Habib al Mulla presented a claim in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance accusing four of the bank's senior officers of being responsible for the crime and asking that they be charged with perjury.

The four officers are: the chairman of the bank between 2001 and 2008, who was not named in the claim; MK, the bank's commercial financing director; MN, the head of operations; and FH, the head of the risk-assessment department. In the claim, Dr al Mulla accused the officers of shifting their culpability for the fraud to the executives. He also requested that the four officers pay temporary civil compensation for damages to his clients.

According to the claim, the officers approved all the transactions between the bank and CCH, the company that allegedly embezzled the money. The officers were also accused of falsely testifying to prosecutors that the defendants had taken part in the fraud. CCH, owned by the Turkish man EN, was a representative in Europe of Dubai Islamic Bank, according to the fraud case indictment sheet. Dr al Mulla said the former chairman of the bank had set up a local company in partnership with the Turkish man to act as the agent of CCH in Dubai.

He said the operations department transferred the embezzled amounts to CCH against bank policies and that the defendants had no authority in approving or disapproving such transactions. Seven businessmen, including the two bank executives, were charged by prosecutors in March last year with fraud, embezzlement, bribery and forgery. The Turkish man and an American defendant remain at large and are being tried in absentia. The others have pleaded not guilty.

amustafa@thenational.ae