Board of Saudi Contractor Mojil Quits After Three Sentenced

n effort to restructure debt-burdened Saudi builder Mohammad Al Mojil Group (MMG) was thrown into doubt on Monday when the firm said its board had resigned after three people involved with the company were sentenced to jail. Last week, Saudi Arabia’s stock market regulator ordered MMG to pay it damages of 1.6 billion riyals ($427 million) and sentenced three people, including founder Mohammad Al-Mojil and his son Adel Al-Mojil, the firm’s chairman, to between three and five years in prison. “The decision to resign is, in part, due to their serious concerns about the unlimited director and executive liabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the statement said, without specifying what the company would do after the resignations. The CMA, which said the committee’s decision was not final and could be appealed, charged that “illegal profits” were made during the IPO through the difference between the shares’ value in the offer and their real value. The shares have not traded on the Saudi bourse since July 2012, when the CMA suspended the stock over losses which the company incurred as it over-extended itself trying to take advantage of a construction boom in the kingdom. Since then, the company has been trying to rebuild itself, partly by seeking hundreds of millions of riyals which it says it is owed by other firms for its work.