Saudi Arabia busts multi-million-riyal visa graft case
Diplomats, expats arrested, named for illegal trade in labour visas
Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s state anti-corruption watchdog Sunday announced uncovering a multi-million-riyal graft case involving diplomats, security personnel and expatriates linked to illegal trade in labour visas.
The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, known as Nazha, gave the names of 13 suspects, including two diplomats who worked at the Saudi embassy in Bangladesh.
The case started when two employees at the Saudi Interior Ministry were arrested for forcing a resident to sign SR23 million financial commitment in favour of a Palestinian investor who was also arrested.
Ensuing investigations led to the arrest of three Bangladeshi residents, who admitted to having traded in visas in collusion with employees at the Saudi embassy in Bangladesh.
When their houses were searched, SR20.1 million was found, along with gold pieces and alloys as well as classy cars, which transpired to be the outcome of earnings from sales of visas for working in the kingdom.
Five other Bangladeshi nationals were also arrested for trading in the visas and smuggling the earnings to outside the kingdom.
Based on the findings of investigations and search in the same case, two diplomats who worked at the Saudi embassy in Bangladesh were arrested for involvement with those expatriates, an official source at Nazha said. The two diplomats were found to have received a total of SR54 million in tranches in return for issuing visas for work in the kingdom.
They admitted to having received a portion of the money inside the kingdom through the arrested expatriates while the rest of the money was invested outside Saudi Arabia.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has stepped up a crackdown on white-collar corruption, arresting dozens of state employees and entrepreneurs.