[Al Arabiya Latest] Police have arrested five suspects in the United Arab Emirates over attempts to withdraw billions of dollars from the country's central bank using forged documents, the state news agency WAM reported Sunday.The five suspects allegedly tried to withdraw AED154 billion ($42 billion) over a period of 39 days, Brigadier Maktoum Al-Sharifi, director of the criminal investigation department in Abu Dhabi, the leading emirate of the UAE federation, WAM reported.
The suspects, one of whom was the branch manager of a bank in the UAE, produced forged documents claiming that the UAE Central Bank owed AED 52 billion ($15 billion). But the Central Bank notified the police and the three were arrested.
The second attempt came 39 days later and involved two other suspects, a tourist and a resident investor, who produced a new set of forged documents of family inheritance claiming the Central Bank owed them a total of AED 101 billion ($27 billion).
Police said both attempts were masterminded by a sixth suspect known as A.F.K who lives in a neighboring country.
| Oman? Yemen? Bahrain? Kuwait? Saoodi-controlled Arabia? I'm forgetting one, I'm sure of it ... |
The UAE, one of the world's top oil exporters, has been hit by the global financial downturn. But Abu Dhabi, where most of the country's oil is located, has fared better than Dubai, where the once booming property sector has slowed sharply.