JEDDAH, 25 May 2008 — A lawyer who formerly represented victims in a high-profile embezzlement case told Arab News yesterday that Sami Al-Jihani, the Makkah man found guilty of defrauding investors, unsuccessfully attempted to seek clemency from the government as a debtor.
The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said that the judge rejected the plea because Al-Jihani was found guilty of defrauding his victims.
“What he did was a scam job,” said the lawyer, who cited court evidence that Al-Jihani had written checks to his victims that he could not cover. “This made it a case of embezzlement and fraud, and led to sentencing the convict to 15 years.”
The case continues, with investigators and the victims trying to track down SR13 million that Al-Jihani was found guilty of taking from them under the pretext that he was going to invest the money wisely in the stock market.
The victims later discovered that no investments were ever made.
Three years ago, Khalil Makki, a senior employee at Saudi Arabian Airlines, and 30 others fell for Al-Jihani’s scam.
Al-Jihani was an engineer with the national carrier at the time. Makki alone provided Aj-Jihani with SR3.8 million.
Makki claims that a relative of Al-Jihani, Badr Al-Suraihi, has the money, but he has disappeared since was released from jail on bail. Al-Suraihi was held for more than a year in jail in connection with the crime.
“Badr Al-Suraihi is wanted by the law but was not brought to justice,” he said, referring to the man in the high profile case that has been reported in the Arabic press for some time.
Makki said that after Al-Suraihi posted bail, a committee formed by the Makkah Governorate to investigate the scam issued an arrest warrant against Al-Suraihi based on Al-Jihani’s statements.
“Even though there is an arrest warrant against Al-Suraihi, he has not yet been brought by the police,” he said.
Saudi Arabia considers it a crime for people to incur debts they cannot repay. People who do so may be imprisoned until they can negotiate repayment. Charity organizations and the government often provide assistance to imprisoned debtors, with the king periodically ordering the payment of debts and such prisoners freed (usually during Ramadan).
But in this case, the man, who claims he cannot return the money he was found guilty of embezzling, was convicted of a financial crime and so the judge threw out his appeal for debtor’s clemency, the lawyer said.
