A Nigerian billionaire, Abdulrahman Bashar, has been sentenced by a Dubai court to one year in prison for a financial crime involving CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
TheNewsGuru reports that the UAE court found Bashar who is also the owner of of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas guilty of issuing seven cheques with a combined value of 126.45 million dirhams, drawn on an Emirates Islamic Bank account, with mismatched signatures.
According to court documents obtained by Premium Times, the Nigerian businessman was accused of deliberately signing the cheques in a manner that prevented them from being cashed.
Bashar, 48, refused to appear in court for the trial despite being notified countlessly. During trial, the prosecution presented evidence which included statements from Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, an agent of CI Energy, as well as duplicates of the cheques and bank account statements.
The court in its verdict, delivered on January 30, 2025,ruled that the crime of issuing a cheque was established as soon as the cheques were given to the beneficiary, knowing there were insufficient funds or other irregularities preventing withdrawal.
The Judge, Hussein Hamdi stated that Bashar’s denial of the charges was an attempt to avoid punishment.
To expedite justice, the court referred a civil case for compensation filed by the prosecution to a competent civil court, citing the need for specialized investigation.
According to his company’s website, Abdulrahman Bashar is the chairman of Ultimate Oil and Gas DMCC and managing director/CEO of Rahmaniya Group of Companies in Nigeria. His conglomerate spans Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East, specialising in oil and gas exploration, marketing and distribution.