A Dubai court has reportedly sentenced Nigerian businessman Abdulrahman Bashar, owner of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, to one year in prison following his conviction in a financial crime case linked to his dealings with CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
According to a report by Premium Times, this marks the second time in under five years that Mr. Bashar has faced imprisonment. In 2020, he was sentenced to ten months in prison by a UK court.
According to court documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, the verdict was delivered on January 30, 2025. Mr. Bashar, 48, reportedly did not appear in court despite receiving official notification of the trial.
The UAE public prosecution charged Mr. Bashar with issuing seven cheques totaling 126.45 million dirhams from an Emirates Islamic Bank account, with discrepancies found in his signature.
Prosecutors alleged that the cheques were deliberately signed and drafted in a manner designed to prevent them from being cashed, urging the court to impose penalties in accordance with existing laws.
Based on evidence presented—including testimony from Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, CI Energy’s agent, along with cheque duplicates and bank statements—the court determined that the cheques were returned unpaid due to signature mismatches.
“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 stated during proceedings presided over by Judge Hussein Hamdi.
“The court sees from the examination of the documents that the incident within the scope of what it has extracted in the aforementioned manner is sufficiently established against the accused to convict him,” it added.
The court also noted that attempts by the defense to discredit the prosecution’s evidence appeared to be efforts to sway the court’s judgment. It further stated that Mr. Bashar’s denial of the charges seemed aimed at evading legal consequences.
To expedite justice, the court decided to refer a civil compensation case filed by the prosecution to a competent civil court, citing the need for a specialized investigation into the claims