Criminal Lawyer Dubai Guidance on Embezzlement & Breach of Trust

A finance manager is asked to explain several transfers. A business partner says company money was used without permission. An employee receives a summons after an expense review. Although each situation may be described as embezzlement, the legal questions can differ substantially.

A criminal lawyer in Dubai should establish what conduct is alleged, which offence may apply and what the original records show. The response should address the particular transactions and procedural stage. A convincing explanation needs evidence of authority, purpose and accounting treatment, together with an assessment of any separate civil or employment dispute.

This guide explains how an embezzlement defence can be prepared and why the distinction between private breach of trust, public service offences and a disputed account matters.

Establish the procedural position immediately

Begin with the document that prompted the concern. Is it an internal request, a police communication, a prosecution summons or a court notice? Record the reference number, issuing authority, date and any requirement to attend or respond. An informal conversation with an employer does not establish the status of a criminal file.

Provide counsel with the actual notice and all earlier statements. Explain whether accounts or devices have been surrendered and whether any undertaking has already been signed. A statement made before legal advice may need careful explanation, but it should never be concealed from the legal team.

Comply with lawful directions and obtain advice about attendance, representation and any applicable restriction. Do not assume that an unresolved employment disagreement means that a summons can be ignored.

Identify the offence before assessing the defence

Article 453 of Federal Decree Law No. 31 of 2021 addresses harmful dealing with money, documents or other movable property received through specified relationships of entrustment. It includes trust, lease, mortgage, loan for use and agency arrangements, with additional situations treated as agency under the article. Its application requires examination of how the property came into the person’s possession and what subsequently happened to it.

Public service cases require a different assessment. Articles 260 and 261 address conduct involving public servants or persons entrusted with public service. Article 5 defines those categories broadly and includes certain personnel of companies wholly or partly owned by government. A commercial company name does not therefore settle whether the public service provisions are relevant.

The classification affects potential consequences and available procedural options. An embezzlement defence lawyer in Dubai should check the person’s legal status, the source of the funds and the alleged act before applying provisions associated with an ordinary private employment case.

Explain each payment through its complete history

Create a transaction schedule that another reader can verify. For each disputed payment, identify its date, amount, recipient, business purpose, initiator and approver. Link it to the relevant invoice, instruction, bank entry and accounting record.

Follow the payment beyond the first transfer. Money sent to an employee may have been advanced for an approved purchase, refunded later or retained without authority. The explanation depends on the complete sequence, including documents that are inconvenient to the defence.

Separate facts supported by records from recollection. If a document is missing, identify who may hold it and how it can lawfully be requested. Filling a gap with an invented explanation creates a new difficulty instead of resolving the original one.

Examine the limits of authority

Permission to enter a banking system is different from permission to approve a payment. Identify the mandate, delegation, spending limit and approval process that applied when the transaction occurred. Check whether responsibility changed during the period under investigation.

Contemporaneous instructions can be particularly useful. An email authorising a specific purchase should be read with the invoice and delivery record. A general instruction to manage expenses may leave questions about personal reimbursements, related party payments or unusual cash withdrawals.

Where established practice differed from the written policy, describe that practice through genuine examples and witnesses with direct knowledge. Do not assume that repeated conduct was authorised merely because nobody challenged it earlier. The legal assessment must address the relevance and reliability of that history.

Distinguish a disputed entitlement from permission to take money

An employee may say that the amount represented unpaid commission. A partner may describe it as repayment of a loan. Those assertions require the underlying agreement, calculation and evidence of how payment was authorised.

A possible entitlement to money does not automatically establish authority to transfer company funds to oneself. Equally, a missing receipt or contested account should not be treated as a complete criminal analysis. Counsel must examine the alleged act, the relevant legal requirements and the evidence concerning intention. The Crimes and Penalties Law separately addresses the mental element of offences in Article 39.

Keep the contractual claim identifiable. If commission remains disputed, state its basis and supporting records without presenting it as an automatic answer to every allegation concerning the transfer.

Test the calculation rather than accepting a total

An audit schedule may include duplicated entries, payments later reversed or transactions posted to the wrong account. Check the opening balance, currency conversions, treatment of refunds and distinction between an unpaid receivable and money allegedly taken.

For a substantial or complicated account, an independent accountant may assist the legal team. The assignment should identify specific reconciliation questions and the records needed to answer them. An accounting opinion should explain the figures and its assumptions; the legal decision remains for the competent authority.

Present disagreements clearly. A table showing the alleged amount, documented correction and remaining difference is usually more useful than a general assertion that the audit is unreliable.

For wider financial-crime reporting context, the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit recorded 9,403 fraud-related suspicious transaction and activity reports for July 2023 to June 2024, up 57% from 5,993 in the preceding 12 months. These are suspicious reports about fraud generally, not embezzlement convictions or evidence of guilt in an individual account dispute.

Preserve records within lawful access

Retain complete messages and original documents that are lawfully available. Preserve dates, attachments and surrounding correspondence so that a selected extract can be understood in context. Avoid changing descriptions, creating retrospective approvals or replacing original records with an edited summary.

If access to company systems has ended, do not use another person’s credentials to retrieve material. Tell counsel what records exist and where they are held so that an appropriate preservation or production request can be considered.

Keep factual explanations in a separate chronology. Do not ask colleagues to adopt a shared account or remove messages. Witnesses should provide their own recollections through the proper process.

Prepare for questioning with attention to language

Article 97 of Federal Decree Law No. 38 of 2022 requires the prosecutor to inform the accused of the charge at the first investigation appearance and record the answers. Article 98 addresses the attorney’s attendance and review of investigation papers, subject to a prosecutorial decision required by the investigation’s interests.

Article 8 provides for Arabic proceedings and interpretation arrangements where a participant does not speak Arabic. Raise any language difficulty clearly and ensure that the account recorded accurately reflects the explanation given.

Distinguish what is remembered from what requires checking. If a question concerns an unfamiliar figure, identify the document needed to answer accurately. Understanding the allegation and record is essential to giving a reliable response.

Assess formal conciliation separately from repayment

There is a specific legal route to consider in an Article 453 case. Article 349 of the Criminal Procedures Law includes that offence among those eligible for criminal conciliation. Articles 350 and 357 address establishing conciliation before the competent authority and its effect on the criminal action or execution of judgment.

This does not make an ordinary transfer of money equivalent to an approved conciliation. The parties, signatory’s authority, documentation and formal procedural steps must be checked. Any additional charge requires its own assessment.

An agreement should also identify the civil amounts and employment issues it resolves. Obtain confirmation of the relevant procedural outcome instead of assuming that a payment receipt closes every connected matter.

About the author

Dr. Hassan Elhais is a Senior Legal Consultant at Amal Al Rashedi Lawyers and Legal Consultants in Dubai. He advises on UAE family, civil, commercial and criminal law matters.

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