Gang busted for attempting to steal Rs18.12 billion from Abu Dhabi bank

ABU DHABI: A gang of 38 individuals, mostly Asians and Europeans who attempted to steal Dh635 million (Rs18.1242 billion) from an Abu Dhabi bank through electronic transfer has been arrested.

The Public Funds Prosecution in Abu Dhabi in co-operation with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has foiled a plot to steal over Dh635 million from the account of the bank using information technology tools.

The authorities said they have also managed to recover Dh625 million out of the total cash from the victims' bank account within 24 hours of getting the information.

According to the investigation, one of the banks reported an unusual withdrawal from one of the accounts at the UAE Central Bank. The Public Funds Prosecution subsequently ordered to freeze the money that was illegally withdrawn. The investigations concluded that one of the employees logged into the bank’s electronic system using the password of another employee, which was given to them, and it was used to transfer different amounts of money, totaling Dh635 million, to the accounts of five companies in five different banks.

The execution of this plot to steal money started through an order to transfer the money during the morning when the electronic system was opened. But these movements were detected after a warning about the lack of required credit in the affected bank account. Due to the early time of the transfer, the process restarted after the flow of money into the account began.

By tracking the transferred amounts of money, it became obvious that these amounts were transferred to several branch companies of five major companies, whose headquarters are scattered across different emirates of the country. The investigations also discovered the presence of a gang that has attempted to connect bank employees with these major companies, and connected the major companies with other branches in exchange for a percentage of the amount for each party.

The Public Funds Prosecution issued a directive to seize and freeze the money in the accounts they were transferred into, in addition to issuing an order to seize 6,000 mobile phones whose value reached around Dh10 million, purchased with the stolen money.

Attorney-General of Abu Dhabi Counselor Ali Mohammed Al Baloushi stressed that it was possible to prevent the crime due to the co-ordination among the concerned authorities. He praised the quick response of the teams, which proves their high efficiency and readiness in establishing security.