Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) has initiated criminal cases against a number of Saudi citizens and expatriates for their involvement in crimes of corruption and the legal procedures are underway against them, according to an official source at Nazaha.

The first of these cases involves banking fraud amounting to SR493 million. Khaled Ibrahim Al-Jariwi, a Saudi citizen, was arrested in connection with the case. The arrest was made, in cooperation with the Presidency of State Security and the Saudi Central Bank, for his participation along with an employee in a local bank in defrauding banking systems and extracting financing amounting to SR493 million in an illegal manner.

Al-Jariwi submitted a financing request that includes deeds for incorrect real estate and fictitious contracts to invest those real estate by government agencies, and the employee accepted the request as bonafide, and sent an email to the competent authorities in the bank that issued the financing after confirming the validity of the submitted documents. After the citizen received the financing amount, the employee transferred an amount of SR100 million outside the Kingdom and purchased real estate and registered it in the names of his relatives with the aim of hiding it.

Employees from the General Directorate of Passports such as Abdullah Masoud Al-Anzi, Nawaf Jakhideb Al-Harbi, and Abdulrahman Matar Al-Shammari were also arrested for facilitating the entry and exit of the citizen to the Kingdom in an illegal manner in exchange for sums of money they obtained. The accused admitted to the charges against them, and they were arrested pending the case and referred to the competent court to file a public lawsuit against them.

The Nazaha source said that one Saudi citizen and two Yemeni residents were arrested in another case. The citizen Mohammed Ghazi Mohammed Al-Sayed was arrested in Riyadh, along with the Yemenis - Abdulmalik Ahmed Qaed, and Abdullah Abdo Qasim, while they were handing over an amount of SR1,499,000 in exchange for bringing in a container from the Jeddah Islamic Port containing tobacco without paying the customs fees of SR7,200,000 in an illegal manner by falsely adding in the customs data that the goods were paper tissues. By facilitating the entry of the container and following its route to determine the final beneficiary, it was found that it had arrived at one of the warehouses located in Jeddah governorate and the goods were unloaded there.

Upon inspecting the site, it was found that there were large quantities of illegal tobacco products of unknown origin that were prepared for transport to Riyadh and the Eastern Province at the request of the Yemeni resident Abdulmalik. Accordingly, coordination was made with the relevant authorities such as Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, Jeddah Governorate Secretariat, Transport General Authority and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority and the site was handed to the relevant authorities. The warehouse was shut down in preparation for taking the necessary legal measures against its owner by the competent authorities. Nazaha’s investigations are still ongoing with the accused in preparation for referring them to the competent court to file a public lawsuit against them.

In another case, a Sudanese national, Othman Muhammad Naeem Abdul Rahman, was caught red-handed while handing over a vehicle and an amount of SR20,000, representing the total agreed amount of SR80,000 in exchange for entering a shipment from the Jeddah Islamic Port containing approximately four tons of tobacco. This was after falsely entering in the customs data that the shipment is fodder coming from Sudan without paying the customs fees amounting to SR1,075,200 in an illegal manner. Nazaha’s investigations are still ongoing in preparation for referring the accused to the competent court to file a public lawsuit against him.

Khalaf Saleh Marzouq Al-Khalidi, who works in the Al-Jouf Region Secretariat, and Muhammad Ali Omar Al-Saqqaf, a Yemeni national, were arrested after the former receiving an amount of SR8 million from the latter in exchange for disbursing extracts for road maintenance projects, valued at more than SR17.5 million, in the region that were not implemented on the ground. The authority’s investigations are still ongoing with the accused in preparation for referring them to the competent court to file a public lawsuit against them.

The Nazaha source reiterated that it is continuing to monitor and arrest anyone who encroaches on public funds or misuse the position to achieve his personal interest or to harm the public interest, and that the authority is proceeding with implementing what the system requires against the violators without any leniency.