19 February Update: I was advised that it is highly likely that Mr. AlSanea may be prohibited from traveling outside of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And that this may be considered a form of "arrest".
I've gotten a couple of hits from readers using the search term "Al Sanea + Arrest". So it seems there are rumors floating around out there.
I have seen nothing in the press (Arabic or English) about any arrest. I have checked with someone in the area who advises that as far as he knows Mr. Al Sanea appears to be moving about as he did in the past.
Where I think this is coming from are one or more Arabic language blogs which have recently run commentaries on Mr. Al Sanea's career.
This one here has the headline "Arrest of Maan AlSanea for Money Laundering" in very large letters. Then in the second line of the headline in much smaller type is the word "previously" (سبق). It's easy to miss this if you're reading quickly. Here's a second - again with a headline that might be misinterpreted.
When you read the entire second article you'll see this refers to unsubstantiated allegations that he was arrested in 2007. The blog also notes that despite the news of his being jailed then then he turned up at a Chamber of Commerce meeting a day or so after the report and threatened to sue the newspaper for printing defamatory remarks about him. Again just to hit the nail on the head one more time - these are unsubstantiated allegations from 2007.
It would therefore seem there's nothing to the current rumor.
It would therefore seem there's nothing to the current rumor.
Posts
2 comments:
Maan alsanea back in 2007 was arrested around the 15 of the month. He was jailed for 12 days in Hayer preson in Riyadh. The news broke out later in the month after he left jail. Kona the Kuwaiti news agency has had their confirmation and link to the news item is still valid. As to the Qatari news paper, they were never sued by Alsanea. Alsharq of Qatar picked up the story from Elaph the Arabic internet news web site. Elaph later published that Alsanea was not jailed by questioned as an apology after Alsanea lawyer wrote a letter to the news paper. Alsanea never denied the charges of Money laundry.
As to the recent news of being jailed, he was jailed and investigated 3 times by the Jeddah Flood committee investigation. Saad contracting in Jeddah have taken a contracts worth billions of Riyals along with a company by the name of Al-ali and Al-aswad. The contracts that were investigated was over sewage and a university contract. Both have not been preformed but money was collected. The names associated with the Jeddah committee investigation never came public as the list of names include many saudi government officals and contractors.
Interesting.
I've seen this news before -- about an alleged arrest in 2007.
But there are several things that nag at me about this story.
If this arrest did take place,
(1) Why did the Saudi Authorities not take any further action against Mr. AlSanea? He was allowed to continue running his businesses, his bank in Bahrain, to travel outside the Kingdom.
(2) Why did the Bahrain Authorities not take action against him or Awal Bank? The Central Bank of Bahrain has "fit and proper" tests for major shareholders and board members. Also one would have expected an investigation of Awal Bank.
(3) Why did the AlGosaibi Family not take some sort of action? Since they'd given him a power of attorney in the past, I'd have expected that they would check into their companies to ensure he was not involved as this sort of taint -if true - could have a very negative impact on them personally and their companies.
That's why I'm dubious about this charge and haven't published anything on my blog about it.
As to Jeddah, I hadn't heard this. But I'd expect that the local authorities are running around in a desperate search for كبش الفداء
They're probably investigating anyone who had anything to do with construction in the city.
But I'm not clear on how could a company get money if it had not performed. Don't local companies have to post advance payment and completion bonds?
Post a Comment