Saudi Arabia: 2 women penalised over commercial cover-up
Citizen, expat found guilty of colluding in illegally operating beauty parlour
Cairo: Saudi authorities have named two women – a Saudi citizen and an Egyptian national-- to shame them after a court convicted them of committing the crime of a commercial cover-up by running a beauty parlour in the holy city of Mecca.
The Ministry of Commerce found evidence confirming that the expatriate identified as Mona Abdulshafi had illegally pursued her own business without obtaining a foreign investment licence by using a commercial register issued in the name of the citizen named Afia Hassan.
Authorities also discovered that the expat raked in high revenues from operating the parlour and gave a paltry sum of SR500 per month to the citizen in return for cover-up.
A disciplinary court issued a final ruling against both including naming to shame them, revoking the commercial register, liquidating the business, paying due taxes and deporting the expat from the kingdom.
Saudi authorities have recently launched an electronic service allowing commercial institutions to report about commercial cover-up perpetrated by their counterparts in a step aimed to ensure compliance with the market rules in the kingdom and curb the illegal act.
Previously, reporting about commercial cover-up cases was limited to individuals and consumers.
Violation of the anti-commercial cover-up law in Saudi Arabia is punishable by a maximum imprisonment of five years and fines up to SR5 million, impounding and confiscating the illegal money after a final court ruling is issued against the offender.
In 2019, Saudi Arabia set up the National Programme to Combat Commercial Cover-Up. In undertaking the mission, the programme, affiliated with the Saudi Ministry of Commerce, promotes opening bank accounts for businesses, automating services and boosting commercial transparency.