Three men accused of faking documents and using an imposter in order to sell more than Dh11 million of Etisalat stocks have appeared in court.
The trio are said to have altered documentation in order to proceed a sale of the 954,797 shares belonging to a 72-year-old Emirati woman.
Dubai Criminal Court heard that the defendants, a 37-year-old Omani, a 36-year-old, from Jordan and a 67-year-old Emirati, forged the women's signature before asking a mystery woman - who remains at large - to pose as the victim to sell the lucrative shares at Abu Dhabi's securities market.
The money was allegedly transferred to the 67-year-old defendant’s bank account, court records stated.
The Omani defendant denied charges of forgery and use of forged documents.
All three defendant denied an additional charge of embezzling Dh11.1m by selling 954,797 stocks which belonged to the Emirati woman.
The Emirati and Jordanian defendants were charged with aiding an abetting the Omani defendant, which they denied.
The incident happened in 2017 but only came to light this October.
The victim, a 72-year-old Emirati woman, told prosecutors that she bought the stocks with Etisalat more than twenty years ago.
“My husband handled the purchase process for me before he died and registered them under my name, then his nephew, the 67-year-old accused, started handling the stocks,” said the woman.
She said that she had been receiving profit from her stocks but nearly three years ago the money dried up.
“Before the profit stopped, my husband’s nephew came to my place and asked me for my official identification documents, I gave them to him because after the death of my husband, he was handling this issue,” said the woman.
She said that the nephew told her he would change the stocks to his name in order to be able to manage them properly.
“But few weeks ago I came to know that the stocks were sold,” she told prosecutors.
“I didn’t do any of this, god forbid that I do this,” said the 67-year-old defendant.
The next hearing is scheduled for December 19.