Tawhid Abdullah, the CEO & Managing Director of Damas, the largest jewellery retailer in the Middle East, resigned on Monday, 12 October 2009 after disclosing to the Board of Directors of unauthorized transactions worth USD $ 165 million, the company said in a statement to NASDAQ Dubai. The departing CEO has been replaced by Hisham Ashour, who recently joined the company as Deputy CEO. Tawhid Abdullah’s brother & Chairman of the Board, Tawfique Abdullah, has assumed day-to-day responsibility as Managing Director, the company said. The company launched an initial public offering in July last year raising USD $ 270.6 million on the Dubai International Financial Exchange, the predecessor to NASDAQ. The company continues to perform well in the current economic climate as expected to be reported in the half-yearly accounts for the period ending 30 September 2009, to be announced in November, a company statement said. Damas further said it had introduced procedure to ensure that repayments would be conducted in an appropriate and timely manner and that transactions would be scrutinized in future to prevent a recurrence.