Saudi Arabia's Control and Anti-Corruption Authority announced that it had initiated criminal cases that proved the involvement of citizens and residents in a number of corruption cases.

The Authority said that it was looking into 158 criminal cases, involving 226 citizens and residents, while an official source in the authority stated that the legal procedures against the accused have been finalized.

The cases include the involvement of officers and civil servants working in the Ministry of Defense, along with government employees and others in the private sector, as well as three foreigners, in suspicious financial transactions and briber, fraud, squandering public money, and money laundering, with the aim to achieve illicit financial gains amounting to more than 1.2 billion riyals.

The authority said that the director of the quality management in one of the Saudi regions, in cooperation with his two brothers, obtained a financial sum of bribes estimated at more than 23.2 million riyals, in exchange for awarding a number of projects to a businessman contracted with the municipality at an amount estimated at 170 million riyals.

Another case involve a retired general from the Ministry of National Guard who obtained during his service a bribe in cash, as well as checks amounting to more than 8 million riyals, from one of the companies contracted with the ministry, in exchange for facilitating its access to projects launched by the ministry.

The authority emphasized its commitment to monitor corruption cases, whether they included squandering of public funds, exploiting a position to achieve personal interests, or other crimes related financial and administrative corruption.