Khaberni - The Court of Cassation upheld a ruling sentencing a lawyer, a bank employee, and others to prison terms of up to five years after their conviction for embezzling 670,000 dinars from a client's account residing in the Gulf.
Investigations confirmed that the accused exploited the presence of a dormant deposit at a bank branch in the capital, Amman, planning its withdrawal through forging a power of attorney falsely attributed to the deposit owner without his knowledge or prior consent.
The bank employee illegally accessed the account systems to obtain the client's details and the deposit information, which were then provided to the lawyer who took charge of completing the forgery procedures.
Accompanied by a person impersonating the client, the lawyer went to the notary capitalizing on the end of official working hours to complete the transaction under the pretext of the client's illness and inability to leave his vehicle.
The culprits’ methods in camouflaging and withdrawing the funds
The case file indicated that the accused updated the telephone data recorded with the bank to prevent any text messages from reaching the businessman alerting him to the withdrawal movements that started immediately after authorizing that power of attorney.
The lawyer withdrew the amounts via bank checks and deposited them into his account in the province of Aqaba before the accused disappeared and the money was missing for a period of time before their discovery.
The crime was discovered by coincidence when another bank employee contacted the client to offer the renewal of the deposit, and the latter was shocked to find that his balance had been completely withdrawn from the bank branch in one of the southern provinces.
The judicial ruling described the actions of the accused as dangerous because they undermine trust in the banking sector, confirming that the bank later reimbursed the full amount to the affected client and initiated legal proceedings to recover the embezzled funds from them.
The judicial rulings issued against the forgery network
The court confirmed that the felony of moral forgery and the use of a forged document were proven against the lawyer and the bank employee, where it was decided to imprison the lawyer for five years and temporary hard labor for the rest of the parties for varying terms according to their crimes.
The court ruled that all the convicts are jointly and severally responsible for reimbursing the embezzled sums and found them guilty of the felony of involvement in forgery, constituting all the elements of the crime committed against the depositor's funds at the famous bank.
In accordance with Article 72, the rulings were combined to become five years of temporary hard labor for both the lawyer and the bank employee, and two and a half years for the third and fourth defendants; the four were also obligated for the administrative expenses and fined jointly and severally to return the amount.
The bank employee appealed the rulings and the appeal was denied, then decided to challenge the Court of Appeals' decision at the Court of Cassation, but the Court of Cassation decided to affirm the decision of the Minor Criminal Court and reject the appeal.
