Fake investment companies.. Houthi front to plunder Yemenis' money
English - Saturday 13 May 2023 الساعة 09:53 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
In a repeat of a previous incident, media outlets and activists on social media reported that the Houthi militia had arrested the owner of a company accused of defrauding thousands of citizens with huge sums of money.
According to the media, the Houthi militia arrested "Fathiya Al-Mahweti", the director and owner of the Tihama Flavor Company, weeks after dozens of shareholders in the company filed a complaint against her in a court in Sana'a after the company stopped paying profits and refused to return their money.
And at a time when no official statement was issued by the Houthi security authorities confirming or denying this, it is remarkable that the talk about the arrest of "Al-Mahwiti" comes days before the date of the announcement of the verdict in the fraud and fraud case known as the "Sultana Palace" and the most prominent suspect in it. Belqis Al-Haddad, by the Houthi-controlled Public Funds Court in Sanaa.
This case was considered one of the most famous cases that aroused public opinion due to the large number of its victims among the citizens who exceeded 100,000, and gave the " Al-Haddad" their money and savings of more than 60 billion riyals to invest, hoping for a profit rate of more than 20% per month.
This is the same thing that applies to "Fathiye Al-Mahweti" and its company, Tihama Flavor, with the huge amount of money collected from shareholders, which sources say exceeds 150 billion riyals, which raises doubts about the recurrence of the matter, despite the passage of two years since the case of Balqis Al-Haddad.
All doubts revolve around the relationship of the Houthi group with the matter, which issues official permits for these companies to work, which is the most important factor in deceiving citizens and persuading them to contribute to such companies, leaving them to work under their watch, and even participating directly in promoting them, as happened with the "Tihama Flavor" company. ".
The company and its owner received special honors from leaders, officials and ministries in the Houthi government, whose President Abdulaziz bin Habtoor honored "Al-Mahwiti" in November of last year, and Houthi leaders launched last February the alleged residential project by the company with an area of 850,000 square meters.
This project, located in a remote village on the outskirts of Sana'a, came - as activists say - to cover up the exposure of the company's reality as a front for fraud, after its inability to pay profits to shareholders since late last year under the pretext of lack of financial liquidity, to claim the launch of a huge real estate project.
Media reports confirm the existence of dozens of fraud companies under the illusion of "investing" in areas controlled by the Houthi group and operating under licenses from them, which makes them mere fronts for the group with the aim of plundering the largest amount of money and savings of Yemenis in its areas of control.
