RIYADH, 6 January 2007 — Four forged checks for large sums of money drawn against a US bank account have appeared recently in as many countries, including one in Saudi Arabia written out to the name Ali Jassem of Riyadh.

The local forged check appeared at a Samba bank in Saudi Arabia in the amount of $160,000. The other three, all carrying the same account number as a legitimate Bank of America account in Albany County, New York, appeared in India, Malaysia and Pakistan.

“These forged checks have been discovered within the last two weeks,” said a local Samba employee who didn’t want to be named because he’s not authorized to speak to the press.

Arab News attempted to contact a Samba official several times but could not reach him for comment. Melissa Ford, press attaché at the US Embassy in Riyadh said she has no information about this fraud.

A report in the US publication Business Union said the FBI has already been informed of the scam. It is not clear if these checks are tests with regional banks to see if they will clear or not. Also not clear is how Samba has communicated with Bank of America regarding the attempted fraud.

“The checks were not cashed, and each time one emerged the (Albany) County’s bank notified the country, which told the bank not to honor them,” said the Business Union report.

It said that Bank of America officials sent Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners copies of all four fake checks. Bank of America officials have warned banks in the region not to honor these checks because they will not clear. The identity of the account holder in Albany wasn’t revealed. Officials speculate that the forgery may be a result of stolen originals that were reproduced using the same logos, account and routing numbers.

The first check on Dec. 22 was submitted in a bank in India for $153,000. Last week checks were submitted in Malaysia for $150,000 and in Pakistan for $35,000, as well as the one in Riyadh. Each check is written out to a different person.

The back of the check submitted to Samba showed that it had passed different financial institutions before being ruled bogus at the final stop in Albany. Police in the US are investigating.

According to penal regulations issued by Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), this crime has a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to SR10,000, not including any costs incurred by the crime itself.

Saudi banks cleared 6,440,000 personal and commercial checks worth SR367,346 million in 2005.