Interpol has issued authorities with information on a Saudi businessman who cheated real estate investors in the Kingdom and the UAE out of hundreds of millions of riyals. Security authorities in Arab and Asian countries where the man is thought to be hiding have been issued with his personal details after the executive circuit at Jeddah's General Court received more than 30 irrevocable verdicts against him. Investors seek the refunding, while the man is also wanted after issuing bounced checks worth tens of millions of riyals. The judge overseeing the case asked the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to reveal and freeze any bank accounts belonging to the businessman, but the man's accounts were found to contain no more than SR12. The court is now conducting a search for properties registered in the man's name after receiving information that he was the part-owner of a large recreation center in the east of Jeddah. According to some of his victims, the con man's investment business began in Jeddah in 2005 when he took out advertisements in local newspapers promoting residential projects in the district of Al-Hamra, Al-Andalus and the Corniche. He reportedly amassed large sums of money paid in installments for apartments. The scam lasted two years during which clients had complete confidence in the safety of their investment in an Al-Hamra building under construction, leading to ever more investors. It was only when the con man started becoming elusive by avoiding changing his mobile telephone number that his victims' suspicions were aroused. They then discovered that he had rented out his property to another man. The con man is believed to have left Jeddah initially for Syria and then on to an unknown destination that authorities deem likely to be Egypt.
