Rahmaniya Group Boss, Abdulrahman Bashar
By Abdullahi Abubakar
The Chairman of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, Abdulrahman Basha has been sentenced to one year in prison over a financial crime involving CI Energy Company by a Dubai Court.
The ruling, delivered on 30 January 2025, marks his second jail sentence in less than five years, following a 10-month imprisonment declared by a UK court in 2020.
Court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES indicate that the UAE public prosecution charged Bashar, 48, with issuing seven cheques worth 126.45 million dirhams from an Emirates Islamic Bank account with a mismatched signature. Despite being notified, he failed to appear for trial
The prosecution argued that Bashar “deliberately signed and drafted them in a way that prevents their cashing.”
The court, relying on evidence including witness statements, cheque duplicates, and account records, found that the cheques were returned unpaid due to signature discrepancies.
“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 ruled, with Judge Hussein Hamdi presiding.
The court added that the defence attempted to challenge the evidence to persuade the court to disregard it, but Bashar’s denial was deemed a tactic to avoid punishment.
To prevent delays, the court referred the prosecution’s compensation claim to a civil court for further investigation.
Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court had previously sentenced Bashar in February 2020 for breaching court orders in a case filed by Sahara Energy Resources.
“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 stated.
The UK orders required Rahmaniya Oil and Gas to honour a supply request for 6,400.49 metric tonnes of gas oil.
However, Bashar failed to comply, preventing the release of the fuel. The UK court imposed a £500,000 fine on Rahmaniya, while company manager Adebowale Aderemi was fined £10,000.
According to his company’s website, Bashar is the chairman of Ultimate Oil and Gas DMCC and CEO of Rahmaniya Group, operating across Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East.
