Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption authority opens 218 criminal cases

Saudi Arabia’s Control and Anti-Corruption Authority has initiated 218 criminal cases during the previous period, according to a statement from an official source.

The cases targeted several officials, businessmen and judicial employees across the Kingdom involved in crimes liked to corruption, bribery and mismanagement.

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The official statement posted on the authority’s website included 10 specific cases in detail.

The first case involved the arrest of a businessman in the Eastern Province and 10 other citizens, including a current member of the Shura Council, a former judge, a current notary, a former bank employee, a former district police chief, a former customs director for an airport, and a number of retired officers.

The 11 individuals in the first case were arrested for their involvement with businessman bribing them during their work period amounting to more than 20 million riyals, as well as his involvement in money laundering and fraud cases represented by raising the value of his real estate in the Kingdom to more than 1 billion riyals in order to inflate his wealth by conducting fake sales operations for them with huge cash sums. The businessman used a member of the Shura Council (before his official joining of the Shura Council), and a number of his company employees and obtaining facilities and loans from banks inside and outside the Kingdom in an irregular manner in the names of his companies and entities belonging to his employees with huge sums of money.

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The second case involved the arrest of a director of a port and a number of employees, including the director of public relations and the director of the projects department, and two in the maintenance department, for violating their job duties and exploiting their influence to achieve personal interests, illicit financial gain, and money laundering by obtaining projects in the port using commercial entities whose owners have been suspended.

“The Authority affirms on the continuation to pursue anyone who exploits the public office to achieve personal gain or harm the public interest in any way possible, and that it is continuing to hold the negligent parties accountable and apply what the law rules against them,” the authority said in a statement.