Watch video: How expats were held in Riyadh after a chase over SR8 million fraud
SIM cards, phones and laptop seized in police raid on suspects’ den
Cairo: Saudi police said they had arrested four expatriates accused of involvement in financial fraud of more than SR8 million.
The suspects are two Syrian residents, a Syrian visitor and a Yemeni resident, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.
The ministry released a video showing a police raid on an apartment used by the four in pursuing fraud.
The video shows policemen searching the place and finding SIM cards used by the accused in the fraudulent acts. Mobile phones and a laptop were seized too.
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The accused had duped their victims into believing they offered public services and defrauded them of SR8.9 million, the ministry said. The suspects were referred to public prosecution.
Last year, Saudi Arabia announced setting up a prosecution unit to handle cases of financial fraud in a step aimed to fast-track related procedures. Under Saudi law, fraud is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a maximum fine of SR5 million.
Last November, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme court upheld jail sentences totalling 70 years earlier handed down to 26 people including a former judge in a high-profile property deed manipulation case that surfaced more than a decade ago. The case started in Al Baha in south-western Saudi Arabia in 2011 and involved two-month investigations with suspects, who also included businessmen.
In July, Saudi authorities arrested a suspected ring of 12 expatriates and citizens accused of practising online fraud and transferring the illicit gains to outside the kingdom.