In line with a request from investors, the Court of Appeal in Riyadh has removed a three-judge committee from investigating the Real Estate and Date Product Investment Group for alleged fraud. The investment group's owners allegedly took SR1.6 billion from 7,000 investors and disappeared with the money. The case has been ongoing for eight years and implicates several businessmen in Riyadh. Implementing a royal order, the court has ordered that a new panel be formed, chaired by judge Hamad Al-Mershid and judges Muhammad Al-Abdul Wahab and Abdul Rahman Al-Mohsen as members. The first decision taken by the new panel was to nullify a verdict passed by the previous committee to sell the properties of S. Al-Nafisi, the head of the investment group. The previous committee had charged Al-Nafisi with deception and fraud because he allegedly collected hundreds of millions from small investors with no intention of investing their money. The committee stated that it stopped the sale of the properties because of irregularities, in terms of the Shariah, found in the contracts drawn up by a liquidator – also known as a Civil Guard - which was approved by the head of the previous committee. The Civil Guard had been appointed to look for the missing investments. The new committee also passed a verdict against the Civil Guard demanding the return of SR10 million he allegedly took from a merchant. The committee found that the Civil Guard had produced a written contract that allowed him to get the SR10 million from the liquid cash and assets of the merchant. The new committee found that the Civil Guard had no official proxy and had impersonated the merchant to obtain the money. However, the Civil Guard claims he obtained the money to facilitate his task. Some judiciary sources believe that the Real Estate and Date Product Investment Group investigation is one of the longest running cases being looked into by the General Court in Riyadh; and that a number of businessmen in Riyadh are implicated in it. The same sources confirmed with Okaz that the previous judiciary committee had appointed the Civil Guard to liquidate the investments but that investors discovered that he was depositing the liquidated investments in his personal account. The investors then filed a lawsuit against him which has been pending in court for more than 10 months. The sources said Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, the Emir of Riyadh, formed a fact-finding committee consisting of the Riyadh Police, Administrative Intelligence and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) to look into the matter. Prince Salman's decision was based on a report by SAMA showing that it had noticed suspicious movement of money from the account of the major operator of the investment group, Al-Nafisi. It was found that he was making huge transfers outside the Kingdom. Despite the alleged irregularities committed by the Civil Guard, the head of the previous judiciary committee surprised the fact-finding committee by producing a letter signed by him, asking the fact-finding committee not to question the Civil Guard. At this point, Dr. Saleh Bin Abdullah Al-Seqair, Head of the Investor Committee, filed a lawsuit against the Civil Guard. According to the charge sheet, the Civil Guard is accused of pocketing the money of investors. It was also found that he deposited SR50 million in his account. In addition, he is engaged in his own business. He had also asked the court for commission for selling Al-Nafisi's properties. Another accusation is that he assumed his duty as a liquidator or Civil Guard without getting any official documentation from the Court of Cassation. This is in addition to accusations that he misled the court by claiming he obtained an amount of SR40 million from one of the accomplices of the main accuser, when he had in fact got SR49 million, as revealed in the check he had endorsed. The charge sheet also shows that the Civil Guard paid money to some shareholders without the permission of the judiciary committee. He had also opened a bank account where money he found could be deposited. By doing so he violated the law. In response to these accusations, the Civil Guard claimed that he opened an account at one of the banks with the approval and oversight of the head of the previous judiciary committee. Meanwhile, the emirate has stopped the work of the fact-finding committee because it has not been able to get any response from the judiciary committee to the explanations and enquires it made. The emirate has made it clear that the committee would continue its work only if it could get answers from the judiciary committee. Dr. Sa'ad Bin Abdul Gadier Al-Quaqi, Secretary of the Investors Committee, told Okaz that the Real Estate and Date Product Investment Group took the estimated SR1.6 billion from 7,000 investors, which was a “tragedy” for these people. He said the investor escaped and smuggled the money outside the Kingdom before being arrested by the security forces four years ago. He said the investors had no choice but to assign a group of lawyers to help return their life savings. He said the head of the previous judiciary committee denied that the court was involved in any agreement other than supervising the sale of some properties belonging to the key suspects. Al-Quaqi said the investors want the new committee to question a merchant who is thought to have clandestine relations with the suspect. The merchant allegedly had SR140 million deposited into his account by the suspect without the knowledge of the court.
