An Asian expatriate operating a small contracting firm in Wakrah has reportedly left the country after taking several people for a ride.
The man allegedly duped his sponsor, did not repay loans taken from a financial institution and left more than 20 employees in the lurch.
He is believed to have left the country in the first week of August, the sources point out, but the matter came to the notice of his workers only a week later.
His sponsor, too, was said to be in the dark about the man’s deeds and motives.
According to sources, the 57-year-old company operator allegedly defaulted on loans he had taken from the financial institution for various purposes, including the purchase of a 26-seater mini-bus, apparently for transporting his workers.
He also reportedly owed over QR24,000, as rent for some six months, to the company that owned and operated the Wukair residential compound where he lived in a flat.
Curiously, the mini-bus that used to be parked near his accommodation in a villa compound in Wukair is also missing now. No one knows if he gave the bus on rent.
The man had also reportedly taken money from an Indian family whom he had accommodated in the flat without the knowledge of the compound’s managers.
While taking money from the family, he reportedly told them that he would return to the country by August 15 so that he could “transfer” the flat to their name.
It was also later found that the man had disposed of all his personal belongings from the accommodation, where he lived for more than two years.
The sponsor came to know of the alleged misdeeds after the financial institution informed him of a loan default by the expatriate. He seemingly owed more than QR275,000 to the company, including interest for the two loans that he had taken.
Now, the sponsor is repaying the loans as they were taken in his name.
A superviser who used to stay with the expatriate in his flat complained to the sponsor that he was not paid his salary for 10 months. Other workers, too, had not been paid for months, it was alleged.
Sources told Gulf Times that the expatriate had also taken personal loans from private lenders, none of which he repaid. These loans amounted to nearly QR200,000, sources said.
The expatriate had worked at a major construction firm in Doha during his previous stint in the country, it was learnt. He set up his company in the beginning of 2013, said one of his colleagues, who is now eking out a living by working as a limousine driver.
It is also learnt that he sold visas to a number of expatriates from a south Asian country for amounts ranging between QR20,000 and QR25,000.
