Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) slapped fines amounting to SR17 million on 13 persons who are convicted of violating provisions of the Capital Market Law. The convicts have also been ordered to pay SR84,790,955.51 to the account of the Capital Market Authority for illegal gains made on their investment portfolios.

The General Secretariat of the Committees for Resolution of Securities Disputes under CMA announced the issuance of the final decision of the Appeal Committee for Resolution of Securities Disputes (ACRSD) in the general criminal case filed by the Public Prosecution and referred to the committee by the CMA against the 13 convicts.

The decision of the committee also included obligating other investors to pay a total amount of SR1,155,691.2 to the authority’s account, in exchange for the illegal gains made on their investment portfolios, resulting from the illegal trading committed by two of the convicts.

The 13 persons were found guilty of violating Article 49 of the Capital Market Law and Article Two of the Market Conduct Regulations through their placement of purchase orders with the aim of influencing the share price. Some of these purchase orders were linked to sales orders, while they were trading in the shares of 11 companies, during the period from May 4, 2020 until May 20, 2021. This is while trading through their investment portfolios belonging to other investors, as these actions and practices constituted manipulation and fraud, and created a misleading and incorrect impression regarding the securities of the aforementioned companies.

The General Secretariat indicated that any person affected by the violations subject to this lawsuit has the right to submit an individual or collective lawsuit to the Resolution Committee to claim compensation for the damage resulting from these violations, provided that this is preceded by submitting a complaint to the Capital Market Authority.

The secretariat will announce on its website when any class action lawsuit is registered, so that the rest of the investors affected by the same violations can submit to the committee a request to join the class action suit to view the trading history and the security subject to the violation.