Price of deception
TDT | Manama
Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com
Top court upholds jail terms in Tamkeen fraud over fake job contracts
Bahrain’s top court has upheld prison terms for two men who faked job contracts for 23 ghost workers in order to extract BD86,000 from Tamkeen’s employment support fund.
The Court of Cassation confirmed the three-year jail sentences handed to both defendants.
The first was also fined BD5,000 and will be deported once he completes his sentence. The second was ordered to pay BD1,000.
Acquittal
In the same ruling, judges overturned an earlier acquittal and sentenced a third man to three years in prison and a BD1,000 fine.
The scheme involved bogus employment paperwork and forged wage transfers submitted to Tamkeen, which had been running a fund to support private sector jobs.
The contracts named 23 people who were never employed and never worked at the company listed.
Although the firm was registered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and had enrolled the so-called employees with the Social Insurance Organisation and the Ministry of Labour, it had no active premises.
Field visits carried out by Tamkeen found no trace of operations at the address on record or anywhere else.
The Public Prosecution said the first defendant submitted fake contracts bearing forged signatures to make it appear that real salaries had been paid.
Investigators said the aim was to tap into Tamkeen’s payroll support.
The Fourth Lower Criminal Court sentenced the first and second defendants to prison and fined them.
The first was also to be deported.
Appeal
A third man was cleared at trial but later convicted on appeal. The High Criminal Appeals Court upheld the sentences for the first two.
The Public Prosecution challenged the acquittal of the third man, leading to the Court of Cassation’s decision.
The complaint was filed by Tamkeen with the Anti-Corruption Directorate, part of the General Directorate for Combating Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security.
The directorate’s findings confirmed that the business owner had worked with two others to present fake paperwork and siphon money from the fund.
The second defendant was charged with forging ten contracts, while the third was also found to have been involved in forging documents and aiding the first in claiming the funds.
The court ordered the confiscation of the seized material.
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