Photographer: OZAN KOSE / AFP through Getty Images
Photographer: OZAN KOSE / AFP through Getty Images
Saudi authorities say they have arrested seven businessmen and 12 bank employees for a scheme involving the transfer of 11.6 billion reais ($ 3.1 billion) of unknown origin abroad.
A statement from the kingdom’s anti-corruption authority published by the official Saudi news agency said officials had broken a “gang” of foreign residents, bank employees and businessmen who worked together “to deposit cash from -an unknown source and transfer them outside the kingdom “. In addition to businessmen and bank employees, authorities detained a police officer and several other foreign nationals and residents.
The arrested men were accused of bribery, forgery, exploitation of jobs for illegal financial gain, money laundering and other crimes, according to the statement. The statement did not provide their names.
The announcement came on the same day the kingdom held its annual annual investment summit, the Future Investment Initiative. The inaugural conference in 2017 was followed by a controversial anti-corruption campaign led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pledged to eliminate the graft in the country regardless of its source. Saudi dissidents have accused him of using allegations of corruption to undermine potential opponents and critics, an accusation that officials have denied.
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