Dubai: A man has been sentenced to one year in jail for embezzling gold worth Dh1.5 million worth that he was commissioned to manage upon a court order as part of a civil dispute.
In September, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the 57-year-old Sudanese man, R.S., of breach of trust and embezzling 15.36kg of gold worth Dh1.5 million over uncorroborated evidence.
As part of the civil dispute between two companies that trade in gold, a civil court judge had issued an order to have the gold provisionally seized and appointed R.S. as a receiver.
A receiver is a court-assigned person who manages financial disputes between two litigants.
Prosecutors appealed the defendant’s acquittal and asked the Dubai Appeal Court to overturn R.S.’s acquittal and punish him.
On Wednesday, the Dubai Appeal Court’s presiding judge, Saeed Salem Bin Sarm, said in courtroom 20: “The bench of judges [three members] has unanimously agreed to cancel the defendant’s acquittal. He will be jailed for one year and pay a fine of Dh1.5 million. The embezzled gold will have to be returned.”
R.S. was convicted of abusing his designation as a receiver, breach of trust and embezzling the gold in February 2014.
“The accused will have pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the claimant in civil rights [the company that owns the gold],” said presiding judge Bin Sarm.
The defendant will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
R.S. entered an innocent plea and firmly refuted his accusations before the appellate court.
An Emirati lawyer told prosecutors that the Sudanese abused his appointment as a receiver and embezzled the gold that belonged to the company that had hired him.
“My clients [company that trades in gold] had a civil dispute before the Dubai Courts. In 2009, a judge issued an order to provisionally seize that quantity of gold. After two receivers pardoned themselves from carrying out the task, R.S. was the last to be appointed in August 2012. My clients won a court order to obtain the gold… then it was discovered that the suspect had [allegedly] embezzled the gold,” said the lawyer.
One of the receivers [who refused to continue the task as receiver] claimed that he managed the task for nearly two and a half years [while the civil dispute was still pending at court] before he handed over the mission to R.S.
“I needed my passport to have my residency renewed… so I obtained the court’s approval to have me replaced as a receiver. R.S. agreed to be the receiver because he needed money. He accepted the task against Dh135,000,” the witness claimed.
Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
