A man and his son extorted more than Dh100 million from nearly 400 people in Abu Dhabi by misleading them into investing in high-return projects that have never materialized, newspapers reported on Monday. A criminal court in the capital had earlier sentenced the two to three years in prison and fined them Dh40,000, prompting them to appeal.
A second court acquitted them but a court of cassation that looked into the case at the request of the victims sentenced them to one year in jail, fined them D40,000 and referred them to a civil court for a financial settlement with the victims, mostly from the UAE. The court was told that the two had set up a company using a dead man’s name and lured in hundreds of investors by publishing advertisements about the high return projects in local newspapers.
But no projects were carried out and part of the funds given to them by the investors was channeled into the local stock market. “An auditing report submitted to court showed that the defendants have not carried out any real investment activities…they just created a fake investment portfolio which attracted more than Dh100 million,” Emirat Alyoum daily said. “They then invested part of the money in the stock market and the report showed they lost around Dh14 million…but they told the investors they made high profits,” it added without identifying the defendants.
