Saudi Arabia changed its law this week to remove the statute of limitations for anti-corruption investigations into current and former ministers of the world’s largest petroleum exporter.
The amendment disposes of the sixty-day statute of limitations that previously governed investigations into alleged corrupt activity.
The chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission Khalid bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Muhaisen said the change will “enable the Commission and competent authorities to carry out their tasks effectively and efficiently to protect public money, the state’s interests and the national economy from corruption.”
This amendment isn’t the first change the Kingdom has made to fight corruption.
Last year in a widespread anti-corruption crackdown, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered some of the country’s top businessmen detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The Saudi government seized more than $100 billion through settlement deals with the detainees, according to a Reuters report.
Saudi Arabia sits on oil reserves valued at $34 trillion.
Last December, a former sales executive of jet maker Embraer S.A. pleaded guilty to paying a Saudi official $1.5 million in exchange for help selling jets to Saudi Aramco, the national oil company.
Embraer paid $205 million to the DOJ and SEC in October 2016 to settle FCPA violations stemming from the same bribes.
____
Harry Cassin is the managing editor of the FCPA Blog.
Comments are closed for this article!