Picture for illustrative purposes only. ARCHIVE

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court has found 13 Indians guilty of money laundering and tax evasion, sentencing them to lengthy jail terms and hefty fines. According to the court ruling, the 13 Indians and seven companies that they owned conducted the illegal activities to gain Dh510 million. Four of the Indians were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 5 years to 10 years. They were also fined between Dh5 million and Dh10 million, while their companies were fined Dh10 million each. The 13 convicts will be deported from the UAE after serving their sentence. Investigations revealed that the group set up a “criminal organization” and used the office of a travel agency to carry out illegal economic activities. It was found out that that the group used customers’ credit cards to make fake purchases through their companies’ point of sale system (POS) and then pay the customers in cash. In some cases, they also deposited cash into customers’ accounts as part of a fraudulent POS transaction, and then deduct an interest amount. Their bank transactions also showed significant cash flows into and out of their bank accounts and company bank accounts in a short period of time. ICA/Expat Media
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