Manama: A Saudi man under investigation for alleged money laundering activities has been found to have moved around SR2 billion between four countries.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, said he owned several international companies and establishments, but most of them proved to be fake, the probe concluded.

He reportedly used men under his sponsorship to deposit large sums of money in a Saudi bank that alerted the police about suspicious financial activities, local daily Okaz reported on Monday.

The Saudi man who was not named reportedly received deposits worth more than SR550 million in one year. The money was transferred to another account owned by a company ahead of transferring the funds abroad.

The suspect was arrested at Jeddah airport upon his return from an African capital.

During a field inspection of the suspect’s properties, investigators discovered that one establishment was in fact a huge store that was completely shut down and had no activity.

Another establishment reportedly in the contracting business was also empty and had no activity while an international factory for perfumes was in fact an accommodation for unskilled workers.

The only genuine commercial activities were retail sales and a wood furniture company, the daily said.

Investigators said that the suspect had been living in a low-cost house with his father in a neighbourhood inhabited mainly by expatriate workers.

His living conditions started to change 15 years ago after he traveled to the United Arab Emirates where he signed contracts with some companies to import electronics.

The suspect said that he had been actively running his business for 10 years and that he had international commercial activities in the UAE, China and India.

He added that he had eight banking accounts in the UAE and China and that he had signed a contract to collect debts with 45 UAE companies around four years ago.

However, he said that he had no licence to collect debts in Saudi Arabia or abroad even though he had submitted an application to the Saudi central bank to obtain one.

The suspect said that he had acquired more than SR2 billion by collecting debts for non-Saudi companies thanks to a deal that guaranteed him SR200 for every SR100,000 that were transferred.

He said that he had thus acquired SR 6 million that he transferred to his personal accounts abroad to help him run his commercial activities in India, the UAE and China.

The suspect added that those who deposited money in his Saudi accounts worked for his companies and that one expatriate resident deposited between SR 30 million and SR 60 million a month resulting from his commercial activities.

He was charged, alongside some of the foreigners working for him, with money laundering and acquiring money by breaking the banking law and exercising commercial activities without proper licence.