A Dubai court has sentenced Abdulrahman Bashar, the owner of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, to one year in prison for financial crimes linked to his dealings with CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
This marks the second time in less than five years that the Nigerian billionaire has been sentenced to jail, following a ten-month imprisonment ordered by a UK court in 2020.
According to court documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, the UAE court issued its verdict on January 30, 2025, after Mr. Bashar, 48, failed to appear for trial despite being officially notified.
Charges and Conviction
The public prosecution in the UAE accused Mr. Bashar of issuing seven cheques totaling 126.45 million dirhams from an Emirates Islamic Bank account with a mismatched signature. Prosecutors argued that he deliberately drafted and signed the cheques in a way that made them impossible to cash, violating financial regulations.
Based on evidence presented in court, including statements from Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, CI Energy’s agent, as well as cheque duplicates and bank records, the court determined that the cheques were returned unpaid due to signature discrepancies.
“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 ruled in a proceeding led by Judge Hussein Hamdi.
The court dismissed Mr. Bashar’s denial of the charges, stating that his defense attempted to discredit the evidence to avoid punishment. To prevent delays in justice, it referred a separate civil case for compensation to a competent civil court.
Previous Conviction in the UK
In February 2020, Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court sentenced Mr. Bashar to ten months in prison for disobeying court orders in a legal battle with Sahara Energy Resources.
According to court records obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Bashar violated orders issued in August and September 2019 that required Rahmaniya Oil and Gas to supply 6,400.49 metric tonnes of gas oil to Sahara Energy Resources. Instead, he failed to release the fuel, leading to legal consequences.
The court later stated that his sentence could be reduced to six months if he complied with the previous orders. Additionally, Rahmaniya Group was fined £500,000, while the company’s manager, Adebowale Aderemi, was ordered to pay a £10,000 penalty
Cr. – PREMIUM TIMES
