Some 1,500 victims of a share scam have said they will pursue their case in the United Arab Emirates where the man they accuse of swindling them out of hundreds of millions of riyals is being held by authorities. The victims accuse A. Al-Suwaidani of selling shares four years ago in a bogus investment project adjacent to Briman Bridge in the north of Jeddah, promising them profits of 28 percent in eight months for each share valued at SR10,000. Al-Suwaidani then disappeared with the money, abandoning his offices in Riyadh and Jeddah and fleeing the Kingdom. “He took over a billion riyals of our money and went to Dubai to trade with it,” the victims say. Saleh Al-Sheikh said he saw the real estate share offer advertised in local newspapers and invested SR200,000, expecting to receive profits eight months later. “I didn't even get back the SR200,000 I put in,” Al-Sheikh said. A lawyer representing some of the defrauded investors said Al-Suwaidani had been detained in the UAE for around six months. “He is wanted for his involvement in the theft of hundreds of millions of riyals and he has been found guilty in a number of cases in the UAE,” lawyer Majid Al-Saiyari said. A source from Jeddah Police said Al-Suwaidani had been put on the wanted list by Interpol as a result of the complaint from Jeddah investors and his subsequent flight from the Kingdom.
