JEDDAH: The Jeddah Court is looking into a lawsuit filed by a number of investors against a businessman they accused of collecting SR400 million from them to invest in real estate through another man who has been sentenced to prison for cheating. The businessman, whose name Okaz/Saudi Gazette are withholding, collected the money and deposited it in the account of an investment shark, who had earlier collected large amounts of money he said he would invest in the international bourse. The Prosecutor General is demanding that he face two charges – money laundering and cheating the businessman who had collected the SR400 million. The investment shark deposited the SR400 million in banks abroad; the Prosecutor General stressed that collecting the money is considered to be illegal. Depositing the money illegally in accounts abroad was a crime of money laundering, he added. The Appeals Court had rejected an earlier verdict from the General Court judge to overrule the Prosecutor General's argument in the same case. It referred the case dossier to another judge to look into the case once again. In a related development, judicial sources have told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that Abha Court is looking into a similar case after investors filed a lawsuit against another businessman, accusing him of collecting SR150 million from them and depositing it in the account of an investment operator who had been accused of cheating and fraud. The businessman is in custody, facing charges by the Prosecutor General of cheating, in public and private rights, after the Finance Circuit investigated his contention that he invested the money in real estate projects in Egypt. The businessman could not prove he made the investments, which led the Prosecutor General to describe his projects as “bogus”.
