Saudi Arabia jails 7 in SR1.3 billion money laundering case

Cairo: A Saudi court has convicted seven people, including an Arab expatriate, on charges of money laundering of more than SR1 billion and handed them varying imprisonment sentences reaching 13 years for some defendants.

The ring which includes six Saudi citizens were interrogated by the kingdom’s prosecution handling economic crimes.

The Saudi suspects were found to have set up registers for commercial entities and related bank accounts for the expatriate, who exploited them to collect money of unknown origin and put it into the accounts to lend it legitimacy and transfer it to outside the kingdom.

The laundred money amounted to SR1.3 billion. An investigation into the source of the collected money revealed it was the result of crimes and violations of several Saudi laws.

The suspects were arrested, interrogated and referred to a specialised court that also ordered them to pay varying fines and confiscation of the seized money.

Meanwhile, an international cooperation branch of the Saudi prosecution has embarked on taking legal measures to track the money transferred abroad and its recipients.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has stepped up anti-money laundering efforts as part of a relentless crackdown on corruption.

Last August, the kingdom referred two expatriates to trial on charges of money laundering worth SR2.4 million.

Investigations showed that the pair had possessed SR2.4 million in cash and placed it into bank accounts belonging to commercial entities, concealing the origin of this money and its ownership, an official source at the Saudi prosecution said at the time.

A lawsuit against them was filed to the competent court backed up with evidence, the source said, adding that legal action was to be taken against the commercial entities involved in the case.

Neither the names nor nationalities of the two defendants were revealed.

In January, a Saudi court sentenced two Arab expatriates to six years in prison and ordered them pay a total of SR200,000 in fines after convicting them on money laundering.

Under Saudi law, money laundering is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of SR7 million. If the convict is a Saudi national, he/she is also barred from travelling outside the kingdom for a period equivalent to the given imprisonment term. The non-Saudi convict is deported from the country after serving the jail term.