Court rejects final plea of man convicted of fraud

TDT Manama

A man convicted of fraud last year got his final appeal rejected yesterday by the Court of Cassation. The defendant was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment last July for collecting BD14,000 from two people, after he convinced them that he would invest the money and hand them 10 per cent of their invested amounts as monthly profit.

The defendant appealed against the initial verdict, which was announced by the First High Criminal Court, and succeeded in getting the sentence reduced to three years in jail by the Supreme Court of Appeals. He filed another appeal this year against the reduced verdict, but it was upheld by the Court of Cassation yesterday, after deliberating the case for a couple of weeks.

According to the statements of the first victim, the defendant had offered to invest his money in an online trading platform, promising him that he, the first victim, will receive monthly profit of 10 percent of the money he invests. In the interrogation of the Public Prosecution, the first victim said he gave the man BD4,000, after making him sign a debt bound.

However, the victim said the defendant failed to pay him the profits or repay the amount he initially took from him. As for the second victim, he told interrogators that he gave the defendant BD10,000 after he promised him with the same offer—10 percent monthly profit.

The second victim also said that the defendant evaded him every time he approached him to ask about the supposed investment and the monthly profit. The defendant was already behind bars at the time the trial began last year due to his involvement in a different case.

He was summoned for interrogation by the Public Prosecution, where he confessed to committing the crime and cheating both victims back in 2016. He was sentenced for the charge of collecting funds, a total of BD14,000, from both victims with the intent of investment without obtaining a license from the Central Bank of Bahrain and the other concerned government bodies.