Cairo: A Saudi court has convicted two expatriates of involvement in 177 financial fraud operations amassing SR22 million, and sentenced them to 15 years in prison each.
The convicts have also been ordered to pay fines of SR1 million and SR500,000 respectively and will be deported from the kingdom after serving their terms.
They were part of a fraud ring that targeted victims inside and outside the kingdom, Saudi public prosecution said.
Investigations showed both defendants, whose nationalities were not given, had set up centres in several areas of the kingdom which they used to pass fraudulent calls by claiming they were representatives of government institutions.
This way, they carried 177 fraud operations across the kingdom, raking in illegal gains exceeding SR22 million.
A search of their residence yielded computer tablets, SIM cards for long-distance calls, two sophisticated devices for passing fraudulent calls and a control device for the complete management of the operations.
The prosecution said it had taken measures to trace the defrauded financial sums, and return them to their owners.
Prosecution branch
ast year, Saudi Arabia established a prosecution branch to handle cases of financial fraud in a step aimed to fast-track related procedures. This branch is manned by prosecutors specialised in handling such fraud crimes.
Saudi prosecutors have reported several cases of fraud over recent months.
In August, Saudi prosecutors said an expatriate had been referred to trial on charges of financial fraud.
The defendant was charged with charging undisclosed sums of money unlawfully after getting online data of unsuspecting persons whom he had duped into believing he would get them driving licences.
The man, whose nationality was not revealed, also manipulated the personal data in opening banking accounts without the victims' knowledge.
Also in August, prosecutors said they had completed interrogations with a Saudi citizen charged with forging cheques valued at a total of $40 million.
The man was found to have presented three cheques to a bank, but upon scrutiny they were proven bogus. He was sent for a court trial.
