DUBAI: Two residency officers who pocketed Dhs7,170,500 to process family visas for bogus Ejari contracts were jailed for three years and fined Dhs150, 000 each on Monday.

An Asian businessman, 54, committed forgery on 91 rent contracts attributed to the Dubai Land Department bearing ghost data for the names of mentioned tenants, the Criminal Court heard on Dec.13, 2016.

He counterfeited 37 copies of employment contracts of the Ministry of Labour with details falsely attributed to the Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs’ preventive security management.

Some of these contracts bore counterfeit visa vouchers. He made a total of 14,341 family visa applications using the bogus documents between Jan.1, 2013 and Feb.28, 2014, it was said.

The applications included those of the relatives of his countrymen – an administrative manager, 32, two sales executives aged 36 and 40, and a salesman, 38, and two electricians aged 33 and 34.

Also, the relatives of a compatriot cook, 54, a sales manager, 50, a sales engineer, 34 and a services supervisor, 41. Prosecutors accused these ten men of complicity in forgery and bribery.

BOGUS APPLICATIONS

The businessman reportedly submitted the bogus applications and documents to an Arab corporal, 35 and a warrant officer, 35, with a Dhs500 bribe on each successful transaction. Some of the persons whose family visas were processed were according to their occupations not eligible to sponsor families.

FAKED PROFESSIONS

The businessman faked professions and visas for them.

The corporal abused duties to enter bogus data in the directorate’s e-system pertaining to 4,960 transactions against bribes to the tune of Dhs2.48m.

Similarly, the warrant officer pocketed Dhs4.69m.

Moreover, on the arrest date, the businessman bribed both officers with Dhs7,500 to process family visas for an Indian woman, her daughter and son, on the sponsorship of her ineligible husband. Both officers denied during court questioning.