Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — After eight years of deliberations in three different courts, the Jeddah Summary Court finally put a seal on the Sawa scam case by sentencing the primary defendant Abdulaziz Al-Johani to 20 years imprisonment and 2,000 lashes in addition to a fine of SR100,000. His accomplice Mohammed Al-Shamrani received 12 years imprisonment, 800 lashes and a fine of SR80,000. The court also decided to issue subpoenas against 59 intermediaries who were involved in the scam to stand trial. The court said the main defendant swindled about 40,000 investors of SR1.2 billion. It asked the swindlers to repay their victims. The 20-year imprisonment against Al-Johani will be counted from the day he was put in jail. He has already spent 10 years in prison. The lashes will be applied on him in 40 sessions. Al-Shamrani's 12-year imprisonment will be counted from the day he was put behind bars and the lashes will be given to him in 16 sessions. He has so far spent four years in prison. Al-Johani, 49, was a former STC security guard. He started his investment scam in 2004 selling shares to investors at SR8,500 per share promising to give them monthly profits of SR1,500 a share. He said the whole idea of the investment came to him when he went to Al-Shamrani to buy air conditioners on installment. He said when he was talking to him, he proposed the idea of of selling pre-paid Sawa mobile phone sim cards at less than their market value. Al-Johani said Al-Shamrani welcomed the idea and gave him SR17,000 from which he paid SR4,000 for the air conditioners. "I also gave him SR1,200 as profit of the amount of money he gave me," he said. Al-Johani said things started rolling and in less than six months he was able to make close to SR200 million, bought a building, a villa and a plot of land.
