RIYADH — A Saudi court sentenced 23 persons and commercial entities, including a citizen and her expatriate husband, to 111 years in prison and fines amounting to SR28.6 million after they were found guilty of financial fraud, the Public Prosecution announced. The court also ordered the confiscation of similar value of money involved in the crime as well as the proceeds thereof, and the deportation of the expatriate after serving his jail term and payment of the fines. The illegal method used by the criminals was to target a large segment of citizens and residents by communicating with them and deluding them into investing in virtual currencies, gold, oil, prepaid cards, and foreign illegal investments. Once they get the victims bank account numbers they would withdraw all the money in the account and transfer to accounts in the names of fake persons and commercial entities, and then transfer it outside the Kingdom. The investigation procedures showed that the expatriate (the husband of the citizen) persuaded male and female citizens to open fake technical commercial entities in their names, open bank accounts for them, manage bank accounts by him, and use them to receive money from the victims and transfer them outside the Kingdom. Investigation procedures also revealed that the perpetrators rotated some money by transferring it between the accounts of the victims, as they assigned them to transfer money to other victims. They had deluded them into believing that this money was the result of their profits in trading and tempted them to get rich quick to double the value of the amounts they transferred to the perpetrators. An official source at the Public Prosecution explained that the perpetrators created websites to display the victims fake investment portfolios and deluded them with the profits of their trading in an artificial and unreal programmatic way. The perpetrators were arrested and referred to the competent court on charges of financial fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, and violating the laws of combating information crimes and combating concealment.
