Two dozen investors and a real estate company in Saudi Arabia were fined in separate cases by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) for violating the capital market law and related regulations.
The CMA’s Appeals Committee for Securities Disputes issued final rulings and said they were issued in coordination with relevant government entities and based on criminal cases filed by the Public Prosecution following its own investigations.
In one case, 23 investors were convicted of manipulating stock and fund prices by placing coordinated buy and sell orders to create a misleading impression of market activity between March 2021 and August 2022.
They were fined a total of SAR1 million (US$270,000), banned from trading directly or indirectly for one year, and ordered to return SAR1.21 million (US$320,000) in illegal profits.
Their actions violated Paragraph (a) of Article 49 of the Capital Market Law and Paragraph (a) of Article 2 of the Market Conduct Regulations.
Another investor was separately required to repay SAR74,900 (US$19,970) in illicit gains connected to the same violations.
In a separate ruling, Bandar bin Abdulrahman bin Hamdan Al-Ghamdi and Bandar Abdulrahman Hamdan Al-Ghamdi Real Estate Company were found guilty of conducting securities business without authorisation. Specifically, they managed a real estate investment funds in violation of Article 31 of the Capital Market Law and Article Five of the Securities Business Regulations.
Al-Ghamdi was also convicted of advertising unlicensed investment services on the social media platform X, in violation of Article 17 of the Securities Business Regulations. Both he and his company were fined SAR2.7 million (US$720,000).
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