The fraudster, Abdullah Al-Sowaidani, has been on the run for several years after taking the money that people had given to him to invest. The victims are now calling for all of his assets to be frozen and sold to repay them.

They also criticized the Ministry of Commerce for taking no action, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. The victims had invested in the much-publicized Jeddah Shadow Township project eight years ago. The township, which consisted of 354 plots on an area covering 439,000 sq. meters, is located east of the Haramain Expressway.

Several Saudi citizens, including women, invested in the project after becoming convinced that Al-Sowaidani had a license from the Ministry of Commerce and that all transactions were being carried out under its supervision.

Some of the victims — including Abu Haitham, Ahmad, Obaid Al-Johani and Ummu Tagreed — said the ministry should bear the full responsibility of the scam, adding that all transactions were held under the ministry’s supervision. Dates had been fixed for the sale, purchase of shares and the distribution of dividends well before the project’s launch, they said.

Victims say this was instrumental in increasing their confidence and making investments, adding that they were surprised to learn later that all of the investments had been siphoned off to Al-Sowaidani’s personal account and not that of the ministry.

They added that they lost their wealth and rights because of the Ministry of Commerce’s inability to monitor Al-Sowaidani’s bank account as required by law.

They noted that the Ministry of Commerce’s law governing investments stipulates that there should be an independent account for investments that can be monitored by the ministry so that developers cannot misuse accounts.

“However, in our case, this did not happen. The developer managed to put the deposits in his own account,” said one of the investors while blaming the ministry for the lapse.

Al-Sowaidani is currently in a GCC state. He has appeared on television several times promising to repay investors, but none of his victims has received anything so far.

Al-Sowaidani’s victims have also taken the case up with several government authorities. “We managed to obtain a number of court verdicts and directives from the Ministry of Commerce, asking him to refund our money and give us compensation. But none of them have been translated into action on the pretext that the culprit is an absconder and that he is living somewhere outside the Kingdom,” said a victim.

Meanwhile, some other victims — including Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi, Saleh Al-Zahrani, Ahmad Muhammad and Umm Waleed — have urged the authorities to seek the help of Interpol to arrest Al-Sowaidani and bring him back to the Kingdom for court action.

Al-Ghamdi expressed dismay at the slow pace at which the authorities have dealt with the victims’ grievances. “We have taken up the matter with a number of judicial authorities concerned, including the Court of Grievances, the Ministry of Commerce and the governorates of various regions. We are, however, each time left surprised by a sudden stop of activity without any valid reason,” he said.

Misfar bin Muhammad, another victim, said he received a bad check from Al-Sowaidani. “I took up the matter with the ministry and got a verdict in my favor. Other victims also secured similar verdicts from the ministry and the courts. However, what use are these verdicts if they are not implemented?” he asked.

According to Misfar, the victims have lost their confidence and trust in the agencies concerned.

“It is unfortunate that these conditions have been instrumental in increasing the number of cases of fraud in which the number of victims goes into the thousands,” he said, while urging the authorities to take stringent action against fraudsters.

Abu Saleh, another investor, called for their case to be the first examined by the proposed National Anti-Graft Commission.

Muhammad Al-Maliki sought clarification on the fate of the plots of land for which investments were sought. “All of the plots … have been sold by Al-Sowaidani. He had received the full amount of money for this with the consent of the municipality,” Al-Maliki said.

According to investors, they filed petitions to the Riyadh Governorate, as Al-Sowaidani’s main office was in Riyadh. They also lodged petitions with the governorate of Makkah, the Ministry of Commerce as well as with several courts in Riyadh and Jeddah, including the Court of Grievances in Jeddah. The Ministry of Commerce earlier wrote to the Riyadh Governorate asking it to intervene to compel Al-Sowaidani to return the money to the investors.

The ministry also wrote to the Ministry of Interior three years ago asking it to arrest him and freeze his assets, but no action was taken.