DOHA: A criminal court is hearing a case involving two foreign businessmen who are alleged to have offered £320,000 to the credit officer of a local bank to organise for them a bank guarantee to be handed to a car dealer.
The duo approached the credit officer and told them they had a bank guarantee from a European bank for up to ¤15m for the company owned by one of them.
They tried to convince the credit officer that based on this guarantee they should issue a bank guarantee for a local company owned by one of them so that this guarantee could be given to a car dealer — which was also Doha-based.
They told the credit officer that if his bank refused to issue the guarantee he should forge one and hand it to them and in lieu they would offer him $502,000 (£320,000 or QR1.83m) as bribe.
They threatened the officer that if he didn’t help his life could be in danger.
The banker later alerted his superiors and the matter was reported to law-enforcement agencies, including the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Interior. A trap was laid by sleuths from the law-enforcement agencies and in sting operations the duo’s interactions with the banker were recorded and they were arrested.
The matter was referred to the Public Prosecution, which after through investigations, slapped a number of charges, including offering bribe to a bank officer and threatening to kill him.
The Peninsula
