A group of four Filipinos and a jewelry trader has been sentenced to spend a 5-year jail term to be followed by deportation from the UAE for multiple cases of fraud and money laundering.
More than 4,000 Filipino expats in the UAE have fallen prey to their ‘gold investment scam’, according to the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court has ordered each of the four Filipinos to pay AED10 million for their crimes, in addition to the AED50 million fines slapped to the company of the jewelry trader.
At least 7.4 kilograms of gold estimated to be worth AED1.37 million had been confiscated from the multi-million-dirham gold investment scammers when they were arrested.
The 4,000 Filipino victims have lost at least AED2,000 each in the scam gold trade in exchange for supposed high returns over a short period.
A pyramiding was also set up by the group to lure more people to invest. Anyone who could refer a sure investor was promised to get AED1,000.
The multi-million-dirham gold scam operation used the website ‘Gold Empire Management’ and social media to grow their illegal activities in the UAE, according to the authorities.
