The Saudi bourse regulator has ordered six investors to pay a total SR278.1 million ($74.16 million) for trading violations, it said in a statement on Saturday. The Capital Market Authority has slapped hefty fines on investors and executives found guilty of violations. An appeals panel of the CMA issued a final ruling in the case of the six men found guilty of violating trading regulations in transactions with shares in Tihama Advertising and Public Relations Co in 2006, the CMA said on the bourse website. One of the investors was fined SR200,000 and ordered to pay back SR142.8 million which CMA said were gains he made in these transactions. The appeal panel also banned four of the six investors from trading in shares of listed firms or working for such companies for three years. An official at Tihama, Ibrahim Esmail, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Saudi bourse is gradually opening up to direct foreign ownership.
