Scores of UAE businessmen have been left counting their losses after a fraudulent Indian company owner shut shop and fled the country on an Indian repatriation flight after stealing goods worth nearly 6 million dirhams, a media report said.
Yogesh Ashok Yariava, 36, owner of the fraudulent Royal Luck Foodstuff Trading, boarded a repatriation flight to Hyderabad from Abu Dhabi on May 11, the Gulf news report revealed on Saturday.
On May 20, several people who were duped by the Yariava, visited the Indian Consulate office in Dubai in the hope of getting an audience with Consul General Vipul.
The following day they went to Bur Dubai police station with the dud bank cheques.
According to the Gulf News report, Royal Luck Foodstuff approached traders and made bulk purchases against post-dated cheques.
When their post-dated cheques started bouncing, the traders rushed to Royal Luck’s Opal Tower office in Business Bay.
But it had shut down and all their 18 staffers also disappeared.
“Calls made to the company’s sweet-talking purchase managers who visited us days earlier carrying fancy business cards remained unanswered,” Gulf News quoted an Ajman-based businessman as saying.
Another business owner said he visited Royal Luck’s office after his cheque of 79,552 dirhams returned marked insufficient funds, following which he lodged a police complaint.
Legal adviser Salam Pappinisseri from Sharjah-based United Advocates that represents five firms which have collectively lost over 550,000 dirhams, said they were weighing legal action against Yariava in both India and the UAE.
