A Dubai court has sentenced Abdulrahman Bashar, owner of Rahmaniya Group and Ultimate Oil & Gas, to one year in prison for a financial crime involving CI Energy Company, an oil and gas firm.
The verdict, delivered on January 30, 2025, marks the second jail sentence for the Nigerian billionaire in less than five years. In 2020, a UK court sentenced Mr. Bashar to ten months in prison for flouting court orders in a case brought by Sahara Energy Resources.
The UAE court found Mr. Bashar guilty of issuing seven cheques with a combined value of 126.45 million dirhams, drawn on an Emirates Islamic Bank account, with mismatched signatures. According to court documents obtained by Premium Times, Bashar was accused of deliberately signing the cheques in a manner that prevented them from being cashed.
Despite being notified, Bashar, 48, failed to appear in court for the trial. Evidence presented by the prosecution included statements from Jamal Awad Nasser Hussein, an agent of CI Energy, as well as duplicates of the cheques and bank account statements.
The court ruled that the crime of issuing a cheque was established as soon as the cheques were given to the beneficiary, knowing there were insufficient funds or other irregularities preventing withdrawal. Judge Hussein Hamdi stated that Mr. Bashar’s denial of the charges was an attempt to avoid punishment.
To expedite justice, the court referred a civil case for compensation filed by the prosecution to a competent civil court, citing the need for specialized investigation.
In February 2020, Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court sentenced Bashar to 10 months in prison for contempt of court in a case initiated by Sahara Energy Resources. The businessaman was found guilty of disregarding court orders requiring Rahmaniya Oil and Gas to release 6,400.49 metric tonnes of gas oil to Sahara Energy Resources or its agents.
While Bashar’s sentence was commutable to six months if he complied with the court orders, Rahmaniya Oil and Gas was fined £500,000, and the company’s manager, Adebowale Aderemi, was ordered to pay a penalty of £10,000.
According to his company’s website, Abdulrahman Bashar is the chairman of Ultimate Oil and Gas DMCC and managing director/CEO of Rahmaniya Group of Companies in Nigeria. His conglomerate spans Africa, Europe, South Asia, and the Middle East, specialising in oil and gas exploration, marketing and distribution.
The recent sentencing adds to the controversies surrounding Bashar’s business dealings, casting a spotlight on his operations across multiple jurisdictions.
