Khaberni - The Abu Dhabi Court for Family, Civil and Administrative Affairs has ruled that the owner of a trading company must pay a man an amount of 268,300 AED, which had been transferred to the company’s account after the defendant convinced him to invest in it.
The court has also ruled that he and the company must pay the plaintiff 5,000 AED as compensation for the damages he suffered.
In detail, a man filed a lawsuit against a trading company and its owner, demanding that they be jointly and severally liable for paying 358,581 AED with legal interest from the date of the judicial claim at a rate of 12%, compensating for the material and moral damages inflicted on him, and requiring them to cover the fees and expenses. He pointed out that the defendant deceived him into investing his money through a trading company owned by him, placed false trading profit data on WhatsApp, and asked him several times to deposit money into the company's bank account.
He stated that he later discovered that he had been scammed, and the defendant was criminally convicted, sentenced to one year in prison for the charge against him, and ordered to be deported from the country after serving his sentence.
The court stated that it was evident from the facts of the criminal case and the judgment issued that the defendant managed through a means of information technology to embezzle 268,300 AED for himself from the victim, after deceiving him that he could invest his money through a specialized trading company contrary to the truth. He supported his false claims by placing data of trading profits on WhatsApp, asking him to deposit money into the account of the company he owns, leading the victim to believe in the legitimacy of his claims and transfer the amounts.
The court noted that it did not find evidence of other funds being misappropriated, mentioning what the plaintiff declared about transferring an amount of 24,871 dollars (90,281 AED) through a digital trading platform to the company’s account, as it was not proven that the platform belonged to the defendant.
Regarding the compensation claim, the court noted that the defendant’s mistake was proven, represented in the unlawful act that he committed by embezzling the claimed amounts, resulting in material harm by infringing on a legitimate interest of the plaintiff, and by depriving him of this interest through misappropriation of money. The plaintiff did not provide evidence of other material losses for the court to compensate him for.
It stated that the plaintiff suffered moral damage represented in sadness and distress due to that mistake, establishing the tort liability by its elements against the defendant, and necessitating the award of compensation to the plaintiff to rectify these damages.
The court ruled that the defendants must jointly return the amount of 268,300 AED and compensate the plaintiff with an amount of 5,000 AED, as well as cover the fees and expenses incurred by the defendants.
