Failed Saudi Arabian Project to refund Investors Money

After all the recent news about new Island developments in the UAE - one project in Saudi - The “Islands of Venice,” has failed, necessitating a substantial refund to investors.

Saleh Al-Nuaim, the project’s legal counsel said:

“So far we have refunded money to 7,500 investors and we want to pay off another 1,000 investors.”.

The enormous project was originally announced in 2005.

Financial and administrative irregularities surfaced some time ago and it later turned out that the developer, Al-Diraibi Group, did not have the required license. The project is being scrapped by Royal order.

The developer has reportedly collected more than $600 million USD from over 15,000 investors.

Al-Nuaim said Arab National Bank is handling the pay-out process. “We are still working on the contracts of the remaining investors.”

“Many contributors who had transferred their projects from Al-Ka’kiah, Jawharat Al-Shark and North Bridah have received their money,” added Al-Nuaim. “We are asking other investors to submit their transfer documents.”

He said he has started a website listing the names, amounts invested and other relevant data on investors, which we have been unable ti locate as yet.

“The new website has the names of all those who have received their money,” Al-Nuaim said. “If any contributor sees his name registered in the site but has still not received his money, he should check his account number to make sure that all the procedures had accurately been done.”

Al-Nuaim appealed to investors who have got their refund checks to submit their papers to Arab National Bank so as to facilitate procedures to collect their money.

The Jeddah general court is still in discussion over the time frame for the developers and investors to submit the relevant documents to Arab National Bank. Money not registered with the Bank would be deposited in the Jeddah general court.