A Nigerian billionaire, owner of Rahmaniya Filling Station, Ultimate Oil and Gas, Abdulrahman Bashar, has been sentenced to one-year jail term for financial crime, by a Dubai court according to a Premium Times report.
According to the report, Bashar bagged the jail term due to financial crime involving his dealings with CI Energy Company.
According to documents referred to in the report, the UAE court gave the verdict on 30 January 2025.
The sentence document showed the UAE charged the businessman with issuing seven cheques with a combined value of 126.45 million dirhams, drawn on an Emirates Islamic Bank account with a mismatch in his signature.
The prosecution accused the Nigerian billionaire, Bashar, of issuing the cheques by “deliberately signing and drafting them in a way that prevents their cashing,” consequently asking that Mr. Bashar be punished under extant laws.
The court, relying on evidence presented to it, including statements by Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein (the agent of CI Energy), duplicates of the cheques, and statements of account, noted that the cheques were returned unpaid on presentation at Emirates Islamic Bank because of disparity in Mr. Bashar’s signature.
“It is established that the crime of issuing a cheque is realised merely by giving the cheque to the beneficiary knowing that there is no balance available for withdrawal,” the court said during the proceeding led by Judge Hussein Hamdi.
Unfortunately, the Dubai sentence is the second time in five years Bashar has been punished for a crime abroad.