JEDDAH, 21 November 2004 — Abdul Aziz Hassan Al-Johani, the prime suspect in the SR1 billion Sawa share scam that surfaced last month, has claimed that senior government officials in Jeddah helped him to get Sawa cards at discounted rates.
“These officials invested huge amounts in the business and helped me in concluding deals worth tens of millions of riyals to get discounted Sawa cards,” said Johani, who worked as a security guard in the Saudi Telecom Company.
Johani said he started the Sawa business on March 22 with the support of Muhammad Al-Shamrani, a businessman engaged in hire-purchase trade. He received SR100,000 in daily commissions from the business.
“The Sawa share project was my idea. Shamrani gave me SR17,000 to start the business. I gave him SR1,200 the first day but he returned to me SR200. That first commission of SR200 was very important for me as my financial condition was very bad at the time,” he told Al-Madinah Arabic daily from his cell in a Jeddah jail.
“My role was to purchase cards and distribute them through agents. The share value was fixed at SR8,500 by Shamrani and was based on the card’s value of SR85. We bought the cards at the rate of SR89 and SR90 from authorized agents initially and got a profit of up to SR6 per card,” he explained.
Johani said he had differences with Shamrani when the latter asked him to get rid of small shareholders. “I thought of quitting the business once and for all. At that time a friend, Hassan Al-Safary, offered to help me stay in the business. He invested SR1.5 million and I became popular overnight. Even senior government officials took shares in the business and they interceded to get the cards at heavily discounted rates,” he said.
Johani concluded a big deal worth SR82 million under which he will get the cards at the rate of SR82. “At one point, my business was worth SR350 million,” he said, and added he managed the business alone.
Johani said he became suspicious when some of his big partners insisted on keeping the money in their apartments. “At this point I decided to return the shareholders’ money. In fact, I gave back SR195 million to some shareholders and SR40 million to an influential agent,” he said.
Johani said he distributed profits to the shareholders with the help of security officers and private guards. He denied media reports that he had tried to abscond with SR300 million he collected from the shareholders. The five-member panel, which is investigating the scam, knew that only SR170 million of shareholders’ money was with him, he pointed out.
“We did not deceive anyone and were engaged in proper business. Our shareholders included even prayer leaders,” he said.
Johani denied he took SR200 million from Shamrani to pay back the shareholders.
Police were questioning key suspects in the scam who collected deposits from individuals offering them a monthly profit of SR6,000 for an SR8,500 share.
