A Citizen Involved in such Concealment against a Monthly Sum of Money
MCI inspection teams detected Asian labors running a commercial center in Al Jouf, and who were involved in transferring money abroad illegally. During the inspection of the site, the inspectors monitored SR 700 thousand hidden in some cartons. Subsequently, coordination with the Bureau of investigation and Public prosecution was effected for holding such amount and arresting the labors, a number of documents and receipts were seized proving the existence of illegal money transfer outside the Kingdom by the Asian expats and away from the official banking system.
The documents and evidences proved that the two expats were running the shop, aided by a citizen, who enabled them to work through using his name and his commercial registration against a monthly lump sum. Therefore, the case was referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution to complete the investigation procedures and then to be referred to the Bureau of Grievances to issue a final judgment.
The details go back when MCI branch in Al-Jouf received a tip from a citizen suspecting the existence of a commercial concealment case in one of the foodstuffs centers. After carrying out the necessary investigation and follow up, it turned out that some labors were running the trade center without any supervision or follow-up by the citizen, despite being registered under his own name.
This comes at a time when the Ministry has been implementing inspection campaigns to combat the commercial concealment in various regions of the Kingdom, where the Ministry had detected a number of violations and had taken the necessary legal procedures against the concealers, which may reach to two year imprisonment and a fine of SR one million for each violator, also deporting the non-Saudis from the Kingdom, as well as the closure and liquidation of the shop together with the writing-off the commercial registration, and the prohibition of practicing the same business for up to five years, in addition to the implementation of defamation periodically regarding the names of the violators of the anti-commercial concealment law in the local newspapers at their own expense.
MCI calls on all consumers to cooperate and report any case of commercial concealment, if the evidence is available, through the toll free number 1900, or through the application of a commercial notification, where the Ministry is granting a financial reward for the informant that may reach up to 30% of the sentenced fines after collection.