Saudi Arabia arrests judge, officials in $134m corruption case

Saudi Arabia’s Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) has arrested several government employees including a judge, for alleged involvement in corruption, an official source at the authority said, the Saudi Gazette reports.

In a statement, Nazaha said in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Public Prosecution, the Presidency of State Security, and the Saudi Central Bank, three bank employees and 11 residents, were arrested for establishing commercial entities in the names of their relatives, opening bank accounts managed by the residents and depositing 505,725,336 riyals ($134.86 million) in illegal money and transferred them abroad while obtaining a percentage of those amounts in exchange for facilitating the deposit procedures.

It added that they admitted to using bank accounts of “more than 40 commercial entities to deposit funds and transfer them abroad.”

The judge who was detained in the case is accused of accepting a bribe to rule in a commercial dispute. The commission also arrested a notary public and a faculty member at a university.

These arrests come within the framework of eight cases initiated by the Integrity Commission.

Last March, at least 241 people, including employees of several ministries, were arrested for their alleged involvement in corruption.

Last January, 32 people were also arrested following an investigation into the illegal transfer of $3.1 billion out of the country.

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