Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced that the Appeals Committee for Securities Disputes has issued final rulings against 24 investors and a real estate company for violating the Capital Market Law and related regulations.

According to the CMA, 23 investors were convicted of manipulating stock and fund prices by placing coordinated buy and sell orders to create a false and misleading impression of market activity between March 2021 and August 2022.

Their actions violated Paragraph (a) of Article 49 of the Capital Market Law and Paragraph (a) of Article 2 of the Market Conduct Regulations.

The offenders were fined a total of SR1 million, banned from trading directly or indirectly for one year, and ordered to return SR1.21 million in illegal profits. Another investor was separately required to repay SR74,900 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 authorization, specifically managing 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 SR2.7 million.

The CMA said the rulings were issued in coordination with relevant government entities and based on criminal cases filed by the Public Prosecution following CMA investigations.