Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Appeals Committee for the Resolution of Securities Conflicts (ACRSC) has issued 52 final judgments on several charges against male and female citizens and companies for violating the Capital Market Law and its market conduct regulations.

The final rulings included the conviction of 15 defendants with slapping of a total fine amounting to SR8 million and the recovery of SR57 million, which were profits gained from buying and selling in violation of the provisions of the law.

The rulings included preventing them from trading the shares of companies listed in the market directly or indirectly, or by proxy for others. The ruling prohibited each of them from managing portfolios or working as an investment advisor, and preventing them from working in companies of which shares are traded in the market.

After completion of investigation, the Public Prosecution filed several charges against the accused with the most prominent among them being violations of the financial market and the securities business regulations, handing over their investment portfolios to others outside official channels, committing numerous violations of investment portfolios owned by them, and committing acts and practices that violated the Capital Market Law.

In the rulings issued last week, the committee acquitted 37 defendants. They were convicted in the initial judgments.

All the 52 defendants were convicted in the charges framed against them in the initial judgments, which included seizure of their portfolios, which amounted to SR540 million, slapping fines amounting to tens of millions of riyals, and obliged them to return the amounts of money that they gained from buying and selling in the money market, estimated at SR300 million.

The Appeals Committee, which is a quasi-judicial committee with a jurisdiction in the consideration of securities disputes, re-examined the judgments and issued the final verdict against 15 and exonerated charges against the remaining 37 defendants.