Riyadh: The two employees of the Saudi Embassy in Bangladesh were arrested as part of a larger scheme to issue work visas to the Kingdom which involved eleven other people, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The head of the consular section at the Saudi embassy in Bangladesh and former deputy ambassador, Abdullah Al-Shammari, and the deputy head of the consular section at the Saudi embassy in Bangladesh, Khaled Al-Qahtani, are among the people who were arrested in connection with this plan, which included two officials of the Ministry of Interior, eight residents of Bangladesh and a Palestinian investor.
In the details, the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) stated that, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, two employees of the Ministry of Interior were arrested, for forcing a resident to sign a financial commitment of 23 Saudi Riyals (Rs 50,07,86,921) in return for receiving 60,000 Saudi Riyals (Rs 13,06,400) from the Palestinian investor.
Nazaha indicated that during the inspection of their residences, 20 million Saudi riyals (Rs 43,54,66,888), artefacts, gold bars and luxury vehicles were found, which were the proceeds of selling work visas in the Kingdom, Nazaha Tweeted.
It was found that the two diplomats had received a total of 54 million Saudi riyals (Rs 1,17,57,60,598) in payments for issuing work visas in the Kingdom.
They admitted to receiving part of the money inside the Kingdom through the arrested expatriates, while the rest of the money was invested outside Saudi Arabia.
In recent years, Kingdom has stepped up a crackdown on white-collar corruption, arresting dozens of state employees and contractors.
