Two employees jailed for theft of shares worth QR17.7mn

A criminal court has sentenced two employees of a brokerage firm to jail for three years each for forging official documents and stealing shares worth QR17.7mn of a woman, local daily Arrayah has reported.

The court has also ordered their deportation on completion of the jail term and imposed a fine of QR200,000 on the brokerage firm.

The Public Prosecution had brought the two accused for trial with the allegations that they had agreed to forge some documents and put signatures and stamps on them. They created 398 purchase and sale orders pertaining to the victim’s shares and were able to steal her shares deposited in Qatar Exchange, valued at QR17,776,972, according to the report.

The transactions were made through the company’s computerised system, which is linked to the stock exchange’s system. The first defendant was a manager at the brokerage company while the second accused was a broker. They carried out transactions through which all the shares of the victim were sold.

The crime was discovered when the victim requested for a statement of her account. She then filed a lawsuit and accordingly the Public Prosecution set up an investigation committee, whose report proved that a crime had been committed, it adds.

Gulf Times