Signature disparities has weight enough for a Dubai court to slam a Nigerian billionaire and owner of Rahmaniya Filling Station – Ultimate Oil and Gas, Abdulrahman Bashar, with a one-year jail term over what it tagged financial crime.
The revelation was made known by Premium Times that Bashar bagged the jail term due to financial crime involving his dealings with CE Energy Company.
The founder of the Rahmaniya Group, Abdulrahman Bashar, has however; pledge to challenge the judgement given against him by the Dubai court, describing it as a pressure tactic to threaten his reputation and business.
According to available documents, the UAE court gave the verdict on 30 January 2025.
The sentence document showed the UAE charged the businessman for issuing seven cheques with a combined value of 126.45 million dirhams, drawn on an Emirates Islamic Bank account with a mismatch in his signature.
The prosecution accused the Nigerian billionaire, Bashar, of issuing the checks by “deliberately signing and drafting them in a way that prevents their cashing,” consequently asking that Mr. Bashar be punished under extant laws.
The court, relying on evidence presented to it, including statements by Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein (the agent of CE Energy), duplicates of the cheques, and statements of account, noted that the cheques were returned unpaid on presentation at Emirates Islamic Bank because of disparity in Mr. Bashar’s signature.
“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 said during the proceeding led by Judge Hussein Hamdi.
Unfortunately, the Dubai sentence is the second time in five years Bashar has been punished for a crime abroad.
Recall that Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court, in a verdict issued in February 2020, sentenced Mr. Bashar to a jail term of ten months for flouting several orders of the court in a case initiated by Sahara Energy Resources.
The basis of the sentence was that Mr. Bashir had committed continuing breaches of the order of Mr. Justice Robin Knowles of 1 August 2019 and of the order of Mr. Justice Bryan of 6 September 2019,” Justice Butcher said.
Consequently, Rahmaniya was fined £500,000, while Adebowale Aderemi, the manager of the company, was asked to pay a penalty of £10,000.
Meanwhile, Bashar and his company have remained silent over the latest jail term.
A Dubai court had sentenced Abdulrahman to one year in prison for an alleged financial crime involving his dealings with CE Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
Abdulrahman, in a statement issued Monday, said he was working with the global law firm, HFW, to overturn the judgment delivered on January 30, 2025, which he claimed he wasn’t given a fair hearing.
He said: “We refer to the criminal proceedings and recent judgment issued in the criminal courts against Mr. Bashar on 30 January 2025. First and foremost, Mr. Bashar rejects any allegations of criminality.
“There are several ongoing civil disputes between CEE and Mr. Bashar. The criminal proceedings have, in our view, been filed against Mr. Bashar as a pressure tactic in the context of the commercial proceedings, to threaten Mr. Bashar’s reputation and business.
“Mr. Bashar will take all available steps available to him to challenge the judgment.”
Abdulrahman alleged that CEE had used similar heavy-handed litigation tactics in the commercial proceedings, including seeking a Worldwide Freezing Order (WFO) from the English court against him.
According to him, the WFO was successfully challenged and discharged. CEE’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was also rejected. The English court recognized the futility of CEE’s tactics.
Abdulrahman expressed optimism that the judgment would be overturned once the defense is considered.
