JEDDAH, 5 November 2004 — Police arrested three key figures in the major SAWA card shares scandal on Tuesday as more stories of the victims of the multimillion riyal scam surfaced.
The amount estimated to have collected by the three over the past three months is SR700 million. Shares were being sold at SR8,500 per share with the promoters promising a monthly profit of SR6,000.
“I’m literally ruined”, said Abu Jamil, deputy principal of a government boys’ school. “I not only bought shares and invested in this but also got others to invest. What do I say to them now? What do I do now? I put all my savings into this lured by the quick and large amount of profit. I’m now at point zero!”
According to Al-Madinah daily, among the suspects in the scam is the owner of an electric and electronic shop who turned his trading outlet into SAWA card business. He is being investigated by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for breaking the law by taking investors’ money without a license.
Lawyers and legal consultants fear that the investors will lose more than 70 percent of their money because the investments were not documented. All money transactions were based on trust without any contract or receipt.
“In any legal court, it would be hard if not impossible to prove anything”, said Abu Rami, a lawyer whose brother heavily invested in this scam. “When he approached me and tried to convince me to invest in the SAWA card business I warned him that there was no legal documentation for this whole project. ”
Two suspects were released on bail after their statements were recorded. Khaled Haddad, one of the prominent agents of STC for the distribution of SAWA, notified authorities that two of the suspects had used the name of his establishment in the SAWA scandal without his company having anything to do with the entire issue.
Abu Zaid, who was nearly in tears said: “I sold my land and invested the whole money in the SAWA card shares! I even convinced my father to sell his house and invest in this as well.”
