WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- On April 10 United Press International moved a story titled, "Saudi freezes 'suspicious' bank accounts" in which we reported:
"Saudi Arabian bank sources say government officials have frozen 530,000 bank accounts suspected of money laundering and financing terrorism. The sources Riyadh said the number of accounts that were frozen constituted 25 percent of all bank accounts in the oil-rich Arab kingdom. Bank officials, however, refused to specify the amount of funds that were frozen."
The English version of the story, however, failed to include that the bank accounts were frozen because the new account holders failed to update their personal information in compliance with new regulations set forth by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, SAMA.
The accounts in question, says the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, "will be reactivated instantly if the account holders update their information."
The embassy adds that "to state that a quarter of all bank accounts in Saudi Arabia were frozen because of money laundering and terror financing is a gross exaggeration..."
UPI's initial story in Arabic did include the full details.
