Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH – The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority has initiated criminal cases against a number of persons and the legal procedures are underway against the accused, according to an official source at the authority.

The most prominent cases are the following:

1- Arrest of three employees of the Criminal Investigation Division of a police department in a region and a citizen for stopping two Arab nationals and robbing SR4,900,000 that they had in their possession. The arrest was made in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior. An additional amount of SR3,443,705 was seized when searched their residence and vehicles. The Arab residents were also arrested for not having proof of the source of the money.

2- A non-commissioned officer working in the Anti-Narcotics Department in a governorate was arrested for demanding SR1 million in exchange for keeping an ongoing money laundering case pending before the Public Prosecution against a citizen. The officer was arrested while negotiating over the price and receiving a gold bar. It was later found through investigation that there was no case against the citizen and that the officer forged letters with the aim to convince the citizen. It was found that the officer had obtained the citizen’s data from a Syrian citizen residing in Turkey, who is involved in a drug trafficking case in the Kingdom. After thorough investigation procedures in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and Saudi Central Bank it was revealed that the citizen, who acted as whistleblower, was involved in a money laundering criminal group through collecting sums of money from Arab residents and depositing them in different commercial entities’ bank accounts and transferring them abroad. The total transferred money amounted to SR180 million along with arresting several bank employees for receiving sums of money and gifts in exchange for facilitating the depositing processes.

3- Arrest of the Supervisor of the Department of Commercial Concealment at the Ministry of Commerce in a region after detection of substantial increase in his bank accounts and real estate wealth in a way that is not commensurate with his income as the total money amounted to SR3,980,000 for which he did not provide proof of the legitimacy of their sources.

4- Arrest of manager of the Buildings Administration in an Education Department in a region as well as two employees, four businessmen who own commercial entities contracted with the Ministry Education, and two residents working in the same entities. The charges against them are that the manager received SR1,120,000 in installments, the other employees received separate sums of money from the owners and employees of the entities in exchange for facilitating the procedure of receiving and disbursing the due amounts of the commercial entities from the ministry.

5- Arrest of a judge at a Commercial Court in a region for being caught red-handed while receiving SR300,000 in exchange for issuing a ruling in favor of a citizen.

6- Arrest of a non-commissioned officer working in the Ministry of Defense for receiving SR125,000 in installments from his colleagues in exchange for their exemption from official working hours.

7- Arrest of an officer in the rank of lieutenant colonel working in a police department in a region for seizing mobile devices during the arrest of an accused individual without registering them as seized items, and instead he handed them over to another citizen, with the aim of deleting corroborating evidence of his involvement in the case. The citizen was also arrested.

8- Arrest of an employee working in a commercial court in a region for receiving a total of SR176,433 from people who have cases before the court in exchange for leaking information related to their cases and influencing the progress of their procedures in their favor, in addition to negotiating with one of the defendants to receive SR1,000,000.

9- Arrest of an engineer of a municipality in a region while he was managing the Land Administration Department, for having incorrect data of infringement and duplication that resulted in illegally changing the location of 13 land grants of his acquaintances.

10- Arrest of two citizens and a non-commissioned officer working in the Anti-Narcotics Department for being caught in the act of receiving SR20,000 out of a promised SR50,000 from the citizens in exchange for the release of an accused individual in a drug trafficking case.