The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has defamed a citizen and an expat of Egyptian nationality after a judicial ruling condemning them for the crime of commercial cover-up. The citizen was found guilty by enabling the expat to engage in commercial activity and work for his own account in the contracting activity in Al-Jouf Region. Notably, the financial transactions of the expat exceeded 450 thousand riyals during One year, while the income of his job as a carpenter, is only 36 thousand riyals annually.
The verdict issued by the criminal court in Sakaka convicted the citizen and the expat, also imposing a fine on them, imprisonment for a period of two months for the expat, closing the Est., liquidating its trade activity, cancelling the license, writing off the commercial registry and preventing the citizen from practicing the same activity, in addition to deporting the expat from the Kingdom after the execution of the verdict and not to be allowed to return for work, besides publishing the ruling in a local newspaper at the expense of the two violators.
The Ministry of Commerce and Investment calls on all citizens and residents in all regions of the Kingdom to report cases of commercial concealment through the Ministry's Consumer Call Center (1900) or through the application of a Commercial Violation Report, or via the Ministry's website. Notably, MCI is granting an award of up to 30% of the total sentenced fines after collection. The fine may reach one million riyals against each violator.
It is worth mentioning that the Royal Supreme Authority has approved recently the implementation of the recommendations of the National Program for Combating the Commercial Concealment, which involves ten government agencies. This program aims to address and combat commercial concealment in all sectors, besides developing relevant regulations and legislations, also stimulating e-commerce and using technical solutions. This program aims as well at regulating and organizing the financial transactions to eliminate transferring of money abroad, as well as enhancing development in the private sector, also creating attractive jobs for Saudis and encouraging them to invest in various trade activities, more over finding solutions to the problem of illegal ownership of foreigners in the private sector.