A Dubai court has handed down a one-year prison sentence to Nigerian billionaire businessman Abdulrahman Bashar, owner of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, for financial misconduct in his dealings with CI Energy Company.
The UAE court delivered its verdict on January 30, 2025, following Bashar’s absence from the trial proceedings despite proper notification. The 48-year-old businessman was found guilty of issuing seven cheques worth 126.45 million dirhams through Emirates Islamic Bank with mismatched signatures.
According to court documents, prosecutors successfully argued that Bashar deliberately manipulated the cheques to prevent their encashment. The court’s decision was supported by evidence including testimony from CI Energy’s agent, Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, along with duplicate cheques and bank statements.
This marks Bashar’s second imprisonment in five years, following a previous ten-month sentence by the UK’s England and Wales High Court in 2020. The earlier conviction stemmed from his violation of court orders regarding a gas supply agreement with Sahara Energy Resources.
The Dubai court has referred a related civil case for compensation to a separate civil court for detailed investigation. Bashar, who heads a conglomerate operating across Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East, faces this latest setback in his business career that spans oil trading, supply, and distribution operations.
In the 2020 UK case, his company Rahmaniya was fined £500,000, while company manager Adebowale Aderemi received a £10,000 penalty. The court had offered to reduce Bashar’s sentence to six months if he complied with previous court orders, which he had disregarded.
