They added that an amount of SR40 million was found hidden in the cellar of a house belonging to one of the defendants.

The sources said the four defendants were accused of receiving bribes to forge the deeds for land on which King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) were built in north Jeddah.

The price of land was estimated to be SR600 million and the deeds were forged a year before the SR4 billion projects were implemented.

The sources said the four defendants would face charges of forgery and abusing their positions.

They added that their lawyer’s request for bail was denied.

The sources said the accused notaries had issued the deed for the ownership of the land from a public notary’s office in Najran in the name of a senior official from a major company, a year before the court had even been established in the area. They said the ownership of the land was transferred four times among other accomplices involved in the case.

“This helped the final holders of the deed to ask the authorities to compensate them with SR600 million for the land on which the projects were built,” one court source said.

According to the sources, the authorities offered the illegitimate owners of the land SR400 million instead, but they refused the offer and stuck to their original demand.

The Ministry of Finance refused to give them the amount they had requested and referred the matter to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who ordered an investigation that uncovered the forgery, the sources said.

According to the sources the accomplices, including the senior company official, will be tried later.

Lawyer and legal consultant Sultan Al-Zahim said the defendants face six counts of charges, including forgery and corruption.

He said if convicted, they face jail sentences of up to 15 years, as well as losing their jobs and being ordered to reimburse the embezzled funds.