Bahraini accused of laundering $97,000 from US online scam

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A Bahraini man is accused of laundering about $97,000 from a cross-border online scam after a US company was tricked by a phone call and a fake link into handing over its online banking credentials, a court heard.

Prosecutors say the scheme led to transfers totalling about $197,000, before bank checks and financial inquiries uncovered the trail and helped recover close to half the money.

The first defendant, 27, is said to have worked with a 21-yearold friend who has fled.

Transaction

Investigators told the court the older man rang the American company, claimed he worked for a US bank and warned of a suspicious transaction on its account.

A captain at the Financial Intelligence National Centre (FINC) at the Ministry of Interior said the caller then claimed he would transfer the line to the bank’s anti-fraud team. A web link followed, sent on the pretext of updating the firm’s banking details.

Once the company entered its credentials, the fraudsters were able to move the money, the witness said.

Information

The captain said FINC later received information from external sources indicating that on Thursday, 28 August 2025, $97,943.46 was credited to the first defendant’s account, about BD36,830.816, as suspected proceeds of online fraud.

He said the defendant admitted receiving the transfer and then moving it through a series of transactions, acting on instructions from his friend outside Bahrain.

Account analysis showed eight overseas transfers to a Gulf state totalling BD26,735.040, plus 12 domestic transfers within Bahrain totalling BD10,024.042, alongside repeated cash withdrawals, the captain said.

Pattern

Investigators say the pattern was used to hide where the money came from.

The captain told the court the fugitive friend also passed on BD5,000 from the proceeds, claiming it was for buying cars from a Gulf country.

Investigators said the story did not add up, given the size of the sums moving through the accounts and the defendant’s failure to ask where the money came from.

Accounts

They also said the friend held bank accounts despite claiming otherwise.

The case also involves the defendant’s wife.

The captain said a second transfer, worth $99,283.23, about BD37,330.494, was sent into her account on the same day using the same method, but an intermediary bank froze the funds and returned them to the American company before they could be used.

Inquiries

A first lieutenant at FINC said inquiries pointed to the 27-yearold as the main organiser.

He told the court that a second defendant admitted acting on the first defendant’s orders, and that the first defendant supplied the bank accounts and details used to receive and move the proceeds.

He said the timing of contact between the men matched the transfers, pointing to prior planning, and noted that the first defendant had previously worked in information technology. Bank staff described how fast the money moved.

Transfer

The bank’s risk manager said the transfer arrived through an intermediary bank, then the bank received an alert the next day saying it was linked to fraud. By then, he said, most of the sum had already been sent out or withdrawn, while banks abroad later reported the amounts received had been paid out.

The bank’s operations manager said the transfer into the wife’s account was suspended and blocked after the bank received an alert, and no documents were provided to support the stated purpose of the payment.

Questioning

During questioning, investigators said, the first defendant admitted receiving the transfers and moving the funds within Bahrain and abroad on his friend’s instructions.

He also admitted giving the bank inaccurate information, saying he feared taxes, and acknowledged using his wife’s account and banking app to add beneficiary accounts before the incident.

His wife said she did not know the source of the transfer and that her husband later told her his friend had sent the money to buy cars, but she could not provide documents to support that claim.