A customs clearance agent who forged invoices to get out of paying BD20,000 in taxes on a shipment of imported wood has lost his final appeal at the Cassation Court.
Last February, the Bahraini was sentenced to five years behind bars after the High Criminal Court found him guilty of embezzling money entrusted to him by the construction company he worked for.
Court documents state that he changed the prices of the goods on 25 invoices from the wood suppliers in order to pay BD20,836 less in customs tax and value-added tax (VAT).
This went on from February to July 2019, but the man was only convicted of the charges four years after the fact, including providing false information to Customs Affairs.
He was also found guilty of forging documents with the intention of using them as legitimate and knowingly entering falsified data into a government database.
He was further convicted of exploiting the power of attorney granted to him by the company, as the one responsible for customs clearance, to embezzle funds entrusted to him to pay the taxes.
The appellant reportedly kept BD10,076 for himself, which he deducted from the funds meant to pay customs tax, and BD10,760 from VAT funds.
A customs officer noticed that the paperwork looked suspicious and upon investigation found a discrepancy between the value reported in the invoice and the actual costs of the goods.
The forgery was reportedly done by altering the costs on the original invoices. These documents were uploaded to the Bahrain Horizon (Ofoq) unified customs and trade platform, where duties can be paid, permissions can be requested and more.
During the investigation and trial, the Bahraini owner of the construction company stated he had no knowledge of the forgeries.
“I had nothing to do with this incident as I inherited the company in September 2020 after my brother died and all the paperwork cleared,” he said to the Public Prosecution, as the GDN earlier reported.
“The defendant had dealt with my brother as a document clearing agent for him, and not for me.
“I looked into our books and accounting records and determined that all operations on our end were done legally – we paid our dues in full but the defendant was the one who changed the invoices, forged documents and stole money.”
In June of last year, the appellant took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court in an attempt to overturn the verdict, with his lawyers objecting to claims of forgery.
“Paying less in tax actually benefits the company’s owner, not the appellant,” read their defence.
The verdict was, however, upheld by the appeals court. The Cassation Court also upheld the convictions of tax evasion, forgery and embezzlement.
Judges referenced documents handed over to the prosecution from the National Bureau for Revenue’s Executive at the time and the head of Customs Affairs containing evidence of forgery.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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