CMA refers Saudi Paper former chairman, board members to Public Prosecution

Logo of Saudi Paper Manufacturing Co.

The Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) board of directors decided to refer some former executives at Saudi Paper Manufacturing Co. (SPM) to the Public Prosecution, based on Article No. 17 of the Capital Market Law.

The executives are the company’s board chairman, board members, the audit committee and the chief financial officer, for the term from April 3, 2012 to April 26, 2015, as well as the board chairman, board members, the audit committee and the chief financial officer, for the term from April 27, 2015 to April 26, 2018.

The company’s executives were suspected to have carried out practices that led to creating a false and misleading impression with respect to the company’s stock price, the market regulator said in a statement. 

Moreover, the Public Prosecution filed the case against the suspects in the docket of the Committee for the Resolution of Securities Disputes (CRSD). 

The CMA also cited SPM’s announcement on Sept. 30, 2019, about the company’s quarterly financial results for the period ended June 30, 2019, as well as the remarks made by the external auditor on the accounting treatment method applied by SPM. This method was used by the chartered accounted for the land purchase and sale deals during the period from 2012 to 2016. The company’s board of directors removed these remarks and corrected the accounting method, reverting the value of recovered land plots to the pre-sale level.