Dammam: The Ministry of Commerce issued the names and details of 10 foreign workers and a Saudi citizen after their sentence was declared for commercial fraud by a court in the Eastern Province.
The Criminal Court in Dammam convicted the citizen, owner of an illegal factory, and sentenced him to one year in jail while 10 Indian and Bangladeshi nationals were granted six months prison terms each.
The convicts were charged a fine of SAR 720000. The court also ordered them to close the plant involved in the commercial fraud and seize and destroy the forged products.
The accused were convicted for being involved in running a factory for the manufacture and sale of adulterated tobacco products at an unauthorised plant that operated at a private farm in Qatif governorate.
It was discovered that the owner of the plant and workers were a part of unlicensed commercial activity, cheating and manipulating commercial data by preparing tobacco and molasses mixtures. They also packed them with wrong commercial data in order to sell in local markets.
The Ministry of Commerce notified that it would continue to arrest violators of commercial regulations, and legal procedures will be taken against them.
The Anti-Commercial Fraud Law have penalties of up to three years in prison and fines of up to SAR 1 million or both, naming and shaming the violators in two local newspapers at their expense and also deporting foreign workers who are involved in illegal practices.
