A sales manager posed as his boss to steal millions of dirhams of his cash in a sophisticated SIM card fraud, a court heard.
The 43-year-old, from Kazakhstan, applied for a SIM card replacement for a phone belonging to the owner of a company in Ajman where he also worked in order to gain access to personal data.
Dubai Criminal Court heard the accused, working alongside a 33-year-old female colleague, used the SIM card to gain access to the man's bank PIN code.
He then allegedly transferred more than Dh13 million from his account to a bank account in New York.
Both defendants used to work as sales managers at the company.
The owner of the company, 51, said that as soon as he arrived to his home country, he discovered that his UAE number was not working.
"I called the defendants to contact Etisalat and figure out why my number was out of service and later when I started calling both to inquire, both their mobile phones were switched off," he said.
Records showed that the two fled the country on September 8 the same year.
When the victim called his bank and was informed of the transfers, he returned to the UAE.
"I visited the bank and they said I must lodge a complaint with the police, which I did," he said.
Investigations revealed that the couple have forged the man's signature on the transfer applications.
It was not revealed why the case had taken five years to reach the court.
Both defendants remain at large.
They were charged in their absence with forgery, use of forged documents, and fraudulently obtaining $3.6m (Dh13.22m)
A verdict will be issued on February 28.
