Head of the Grievances Chamber Abdulaziz Al-Nassar has directed the Al-Ajhori bankruptcy office (ABO) to take action against the Al-Ajhori family members residing outside the Kingdom and ordered them to repay SR655 million to investors, local media said.

The case against the Al-Ajhori family came in light of reports submitted by the first commercial department at the administrative court of Jeddah at the request of the ABO office, the media said.

Accordingly, Al-Ajhori was put in jail and a series of rulings were issued against him and his relatives who have been residing outside the Kingdom for several decades.

They were collectively ordered to repay a total sum of SR655 million to investors, legal accountant at ABO Salih Al-Naim said.

Al-Ajhori is currently in prison pending the implementation of final judgments leveled against him and his relatives.

Upon a royal decree, he was released for a period of three years on condition that he would help the bankruptcy office to recover money he had remitted to foreign countries during the last 30 years, he said.

In light of the judicial ruling of the administrative court, the head of Al-Ajhori bankruptcy office and legal accountant were directed to collect Al-Ajhori’s data of properties and relatives in Spain, Switzerland, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, Al-Naim said.

Al-Ajhori has committed to provide a bank guarantee of SR750 million several times indicating that he and his family have more than this amount in their possession.

Additionally, Al-Ajhori has recently received remittances worth millions of riyals and efforts are under way to verify the sources of these bank transfers.

The recent judicial rulings may give hope to investors in the Al-Ajhori property to retake their investments which have remained in the hands of Al-Ajhori and his family for the last 30 years, he said.

It has become apparent that Al-Jhori is procrastinating to repay the money he had taken from investors and instead smuggled out that money to buy properties in Spain and Egypt and to become a Dubai-based gold dealer.

Since the early 1980s, Al-Ajhori has been known to have made Switzerland the country of choice for his smuggling activities, he said.

According to news reports, the number of investors in the Al-Ajhori property fund stands at roughly 8,765 representing some 37 nationalities from Arab, Islamic and foreign countries.