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10 APRIL 2024

Monday, June 1, 2020

Saudi Citizens Question Where Did US107 Billion Confiscated Moneys Go?

My comments : Recall that three years ago the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia MBS (Mr Bone Saw) imprisoned dozens of Saudi millionaires and billionaires inside the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh? They were released after their moneys and wealth had been confiscated. The amount is estimated at US$105 Billion or more.  

Questions are being raised where did all that money go? Do read my comments at the end. Here is a news report :





Middle East – Saudi Arabia

The issue of the money that was drawn from the Ritz-Carlton hotel detainees, which is estimated at billions of dollars, is back again, in  the Saudi social media.  Three years after arresting a number of the richest people in the Kingdom and their detention in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, a campaign was launched to find out the fate of the huge sums that the state obtained after financial settlements with dozens of princes and businessmen arrested in the Kingdom as a condition for their release.

The Saudi government has not yet given many details about the nature of the financial settlements reached with those detained when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the arrest and detention of a large number of Saudi princes and businessmen at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, under what he called a "crackdown on corruption". 

The fact that the tremendous amount of funds obtained by the Saudi government to release the Ritz detainees in exchange for giving up large shares of their wealth remains unknown and mysterious to the ordinary Saudi citizen, who has to live in difficult living conditions witnessed in the Kingdom with the start of new austerity measures and increasing taxes under the pretext of the financial crisis due to the Corona pandemic.

In this regard, and after an interview conducted by the Saudi activist and dissident Omar bin Abdul Aziz with a former official in the Saudi banking system, which was broadcast live on social media, "Where did the money of the Ritz detainees go?" rose in the Saudi platforms.

Referring to the campaign of arrests that the Saudi crown prince launched on September 10, 2017 against the princes and senior Saudi officials and businessmen on the grounds of "fighting corruption," Saeed Al-Zahrani, a former official in a Saudi bank, said that "imaginary money" was withdrawn from princes and businessmen. who were detained at Ritz-Carlton. 

This prompted activists and social media pioneers to question the fate of the detainees ’money, by posting tweets on Twitter, rejecting Bin Salman’s economic policy, which they described as failing, accusing him of stealing the kingdom’s fortunes and spending it on his pleasures and entertainment.

Saudi Arabia announced at that time the recovery of about 400 billion Saudi riyals (US$107 Billion)  from the princes and arrested officials, led by Saudi billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, who left the detention after 83 days after he signed a secret agreement with the Saudi government.

A "Anti-Corruption" committee chaired by the Crown Prince said last year that a total of $ 107 billion in cash, real estate, companies and securities had been recovered from 87 people.

A statement by the Saudi Royal Court said that the committee had completed its work, while 64 people remained in detention, 56 of them were in cases unrelated to financial corruption, while eight others rejected the financial settlement adopted by the authorities in releasing the accused.

Saudi human rights activist Omaima Al-Najjar posted on her Twitter account, asking about the fate of the money, "A thief stole from another thief, increasing taxes on the poor people 3 times, where did the billions go?"

While activist Sarah al-Shahrani directed her question to the Saudi crown prince, saying, "If you were wondering where did the country's billions go during the past years, then, how much money was withdrawn from the Ritz Carlton detainees? The question remains for MBS: Where is the money that you stole from the Ritz Carlton detainees?"

Activist Omar Shehab wrote that "the Ritz Carlton detainees signed a waiver of their money and assets to obtain their freedom, but the simple citizen is the one who has to bear the crises and is forced to pay the financial compensation always.  Where is the money the Crown Prince stole from the Ritz Carlton detainees? "

In a report published on February 3, 2019, Bloomberg News reported that the princes and business leaders who were released by the Saudi authorities lost billions of dollars in their wealth.

Four months before the publication of this report, the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman had informed Bloomberg that the Saudi "anti-corruption" committee had collected US$35 billion from detainees, but the agency commented that it was very difficult to verify the allegations of the commission due to the blackout in Saudi.

Bloomberg explained that closed-ended companies rarely disclose their financial statistics, and that the value of real estate, which is the preferred assets of many of the country's wealthy people, is covered up due to the lack of records of commercial dealings on them and because of the blackout on buyers.

#Money_of_Ritz_Detainees #Saudi_Arabia


My comments :  Large sections of the Saudi Arabian royal family (which numbers thousands) plus many of the country's wealthy and elite do not like the present King Salman and his bone-headed Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (who had the journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered and butchered). 

Before the detention of the rich princes and businessmen at the Ritz Carlton there already were assassination attempts against the Crown Prince where he was most likely shot and injured. 

Almost the entire batch of those detained at the Ritz Carlton were obviously on the side that is opposed to the Crown Prince and his father the King.

The arrest and confiscation of US$107 BILLION worth of wealth was simply aimed at removing the financial means of the wealthy princes and rich businessmen to prevent them from using their money to pay for military coup de etats, hiring more assassins, hiring mercenaries, buying influence etc. 

I believe there is a very difficult future for Saudi Arabia. 

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