A Dubai court has sentenced the owner of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, Abdulrahman Bashar to one year in prison for a financial crime involving his dealings with CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
The ruling marks the second time in less than five years that Abdulrahman Bashar would be sentenced to jail, the first being a ten-month imprisonment declared against him by a UK court in 2020.
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According to court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the UAE court gave the verdict on 30 January 2025 even as Mr Bashar, 48, failed to show up for trial despite being notified.
The public prosecution in the UAE charged the businessman for issuing seven cheques with a combined value of 126.45 million dirhams, drawn on an Emirates Islamic Bank account with a mismatch in his signature.
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The prosecution accused the Nigerian billionaire of issuing the cheques by “deliberately signing and drafting them in a way that prevents their cashing,” consequently asking that Mr Bashar be punished under extant laws.
The court, relying on evidence presented to it, including statements by Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein (the agent of CI Energy), duplicates of the cheques and statements of account, noted that the cheques were returned unpaid on presentation at Emirates Islamic Bank because of disparity in Mr Bashar’s signature.
“It is established that the crime of issuing a cheque is realised merely by giving the cheque to the beneficiary knowing that there is no balance available for withdrawal,” the court said during the proceeding led by Jugde Hussein Hamdi.
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“The court sees from the examination of the documents that the incident within the scope of what it has extracted in the aforementioned manner is sufficiently established against the accused to convict him,” it added.
It remarked that the defence attempted to question the evidences presented against it as a ploy to convince the court to disregard them, adding that the accused’s denial of the charge was intended to avert punishment.
To avoid delay in justice delivery, the court chose to refer a civil case filed by the prosecution for compensation to a competent civil court since the claims require a special investigation.
The businessman’s previous record
Justice Butcher of England and Wales High Court, in a verdict issued in February 2020, sentenced Mr Bashar to a jail term of ten months for flouting several orders of the court in a case initiated by Sahara Energy Resources. is “punished,” not “published.” (Here is the hyperlink)
“The basis of the sentence was that Mr Bashir had committed continuing breaches of the order of Mr Justice Robin Knowles of 1 August 2019 and of the order of Mr Justice Bryan of 6 September 2019,” Justice Butcher said.
The orders required Rahmaniya Oil and Gas to honour the request for supply of 6,400.49 metric tonnes of gas to Sahara Energy Resources or its agent.
Instead, Abdulrahman Bashar failed to “allow or procure Rahmaniya Oil and Gas Limited or its servants or agents to allow the release of the said gas oil from the terminal,” according to court documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
The court issued a binding indication that the term could be commuted to six months if he abided with the previous court order that he disregarded.
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Rahmaniya was fined £500,000, while Adebowale Aderemi, the manager of the company, was asked to pay a penalty of £10,000.
Who is Abdulrahman Bashar?
According to information on his company website, Abdulrahman Bashar is chair of Ultimate Oil and Gas DMCC. He is also managing director and chief executive officer of Rahamaniyya Group of Companies, Nigeria. His companies are engaged in the trading, supplying, and distributing of African crude and oil products, from which the billionaire has amassed a huge fortune.
“Through Rahamaniyya group, Alhaji (Abdulrahman Bashar) now directs a diversified conglomerate consisting of business outfits operating in various sectors of the economy across Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Middle east: making the most of his vast experience in oil and gas exploration, marketing, distribution of petroleum products and haulage,” his profile on his company website further said.
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