Receiving funds, deposits without a licence Thursday, 26 May 2011 00:23

Legal corner by Abdelaal A Khalil

The Decree Law No. 33/2006 on Qatar Central Bank points out that only a legally licensed person can accept deposits, after obtaining the necessary licence from the QCB in accordance with the provisions of this law. Otherwise he shall be punished with a jail term not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding two million Qatari Riyals (2000,000) or either of these two penalties.

The public prosecution, under the provisions of the above law, has charged a businessman of receipt and acceptance of deposits and funds of investors and exercising of a commercial activity without a licence. He invested these funds against a monthly profit, took that money and refused to pay the same on the basis of false claims and arguments. According to the charges against him, he received the funds and varying deposits from a large group of depositors who handed over the money to invest in various commercial projects in order to receive high profits without being authorised or licensed by the competent authorities to work in this field. Getting a proper licence from the Central Bank to provide financial services requires different financial guarantees to exercise that activity in order to preserve and ensure the funds and deposits of the investors, while the accused didn’t comply with that, and received the funds from the clients and did not give it back to them. The prosecution, after interrogation, ordered to send him to the Court of Misdemeanors to punish him according to the above-mentioned law. This new charge came after dozens of charges against the concerned businessman who is facing trial in similar cases which are still pending in the courts. As a number of cases have been denied due to the lack of reliable legal documents and lack of interest of the affected people to preserve their financial rights by going into the uncalculated adventures without legal documents that could be adopted legally, and it will lead to the loss of their cases, which were raised without sufficient legal documents that could be trusted upon by the law.

This case highlights the gravity of the punishment provided for the crime of receipt of funds from others for investment and employment without obtaining the approval of the Central Bank or delivering their funds to claiming that he has capacity to invest the funds of individuals because the phenomenon of capital investment is active and is spread in communities and places where cash flows, flexibility and simplicity and procedures of affordable financing. The easy financial procedures, availability of savings for some, profitable investment opportunities, exploitation of these good conditions by some people and their attempt to persuade their victims to achieve a monthly profit and interest higher than the regulated banks is a matter that tempts the ignorant people and leads them to hand over their savings and their money to a person who invests against a fixed monthly income that the depositor will get.

Unfortunately, many victims rush towards this abyss in pursuit of rapid gain and forget to save the capital, which they deliver voluntarily and willingly to a fraud investor who have a stylish appearance, luxury car and fake relationships and communications, which are trappings designed to tighten the fishing nets on the victims until he hands over his money voluntarily and sometimes you will find the victim chasing the offender in order to deliver his money and makes concessions to the fraud investor and in many cases he hesitates to get a document of the principal amount gifted to the fraudster and does not demand the profits which he is expected to get.

When the victim comes to know that he has been trapped, he does not find a way out and continues to revolve around himself. He does not possess evidence or proof to claim his rights or penalty from this fraudster who disappears and melts just as salt dissolves in water and if finds him he cannot find an evidence against him. If the victim came across evidence he finds himself reluctant to report about this fraudster fearing consequences and concerning the job and settlement imagining that the one who claims his right may be punished with expulsion from the country.

Many perpetrators remain victims and end all attempts in order to claim the money which was taken. However, most of the victims and the perpetrators would be originally friends and the friend cheats his friends and takes over the money which they borrowed from banks with the security of transfer of salary. The cheat is aware of the importance of the work and job for the victim in the provision of the monthly installment to the bank by deducting from the salary. The fraudster pressurizes the victim that if he approached the police, it will distort his reputation and raise suspicions about him in the work and will result in the end of his services from the work. The swindler promises the victim the payment and misleads him saying that he lost the money in the business. He asks him to keep patience for a month or a year and even two years without any effective result until the validity of documents and papers that preserve the right of the victim comes to an end. You also find other fraudsters who collect money from his countrymen, misleads them saying that he has ability to convert dust into gold in order to prove his ability to them and brings their families and their relatives to work on the sponsorship of a fake company and after the unearthing of disaster he threatens to cancel the residential permit of relatives and friends who are working on his sponsorship and return them to the country again if any of the victims thought to submit a report or complaint to the competent authorities and so on.

Finally, each person has to investigate the accuracy when he goes to invest his money and must not look at a quick profit that violates the law or makes him suffer risks. He should be content with safe, certain, permanent and little profit which is better than temporary big profit which is not covered by the guarantee and not protected by any apparent law.