The decision, according to auditor Saleh Al-Naeem, was taken by the ninth commercial bench at the court headed by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Zahrani. The money obtained from land sales would be used to pay the dues of some 9,000 investors.

Al-Naeem said the ruling covered real estate properties in Shati district of Jeddah and the properties along Al-Hijrah Road in Madinah. He expressed his hope that the auction to sell the properties would take place soon after Ramadan in September.

He said a number of experts including the assessment authority at the general court, representatives from the real estate committees at the chambers of commerce and industry and head of real estate agents in Jeddah and Madinah would be called to evaluate the properties for sale in auction.

“Efforts are now under way to select the place for conducting the auction in Jeddah and Madinah. After selecting the place we’ll announce the date,” Al-Naeem said. “We’ll also announce the conditions and procedures for the auction in a few days.”

Al-Naeem emphasized the need for updating information about the 8,765 investors whose names have been registered in the bankruptcy records, saying that they belong to different countries.

“An agreement will be reached with one of the banks in the Kingdom to distribute the proceeds from real estate sales among the investors after judicial approval,” Al-Naeem said.

He said investors who were cheated by Al-Ajhouri included 3,623 Saudis, 1,472 Egyptians, 913 Palestinians, 778 Jordanians, 590 Syrians, 340 Yemenis, 189 Pakistanis, 51 Sudanese, 37 Lebanese, 32 Indians, 19 Americans, 16 Britons, 11 Bangladeshis, 12 Eritreans, eight Iraqis, seven Turks, seven Ethiopians, five Tunisians, five Indonesians and five Canadians. Other investors are from Turkmenistan, Iran, Morocco and Libya (4 each), Somalia (3), Japan, Tanzania, the Philippines, Thailand (2 each) and one each from Sweden, Germany, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, Myanmar and Afghanistan. There are 620 unidentified investors.

Al-Naeem urged foreign consulates to confirm the names of nationals who have invested with Al-Ajhouri and provide their bank accounts. He said the amounts would be disbursed in installments to the beneficiaries.

“We’ll distribute the money in accordance with the funds we receive from sales of properties,” he said. He expected the investors would receive 25 percent of their capital investment in the first installment.

Al-Ajhouri has been in prison for 26 years in connection with the real estate scam. There are 321 land plots in Jeddah’s Obhur district that have been traced back to Al-Ajhouri. The jailed fraudster also reportedly owns land deeds in other areas.