Two Indians accused of defrauding UAE ministry

Two Indian nationals have been accused of defrauding more than 1.44 million dirhams (about $400,000) from the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) finance ministry after forging 3,160 electronic transactions.

The employees, identified only as MR, 23, and AA, 24, worked at the Al Baraha Hospital in Dubai that processed e-transactions for the UAE health ministry's administration of preventive medicine, media reported.

The two were responsible for receiving applications and fees from customers, then paying them electronically to the ministry.

According to prosecution record, they took advantage of a technical glitch that hit the e-dirham payment system in February last year.

The two Indians pleaded guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance Wednesday.

The system should have shown that the value of the e-dirham was wired to the ministry's accounts but due to the glitch the money was not actually transferred through the e-dirham payment system.

A woman director at the ministry testified that the theft was discovered after one of the clients' transactions were rejected.

A special team was formed and tasked to investigate what happened.

"The ministry immediately halted the system after more than 3,000 e-transactions were discovered to have been forged," Gulf News quoted the director as saying.

The case was adjourned for hearing till April 6.