Crackdown puts $33 billion at risk

CROWN Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on some of Saudi Arabia’s richest and most powerful men has put $33 billion (R468bn) of personal wealth at risk.

The stunning series of arrests has implicated three of the country’s richest people, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is among the world’s richest people with $19bn.

Also being held are the kingdom’s second- and fifth-wealthiest people, as well as a travel-agency mogul and Bakr Binladin, a scion of one of the country’s biggest construction empires.

The arrests, which Bin Salman said were part of a fight against corruption, have reportedly led to the government freeze of accounts of the more than three dozen men detained and believed to be held at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton. Alwaleed bin Talal, $19bn Owns stakes in Twitter, News Corporation and Citi- group.

Nephew of the late Saudi ruler, King Abdullah. Son of Prince Talal and Princess Mona El-Solh, daughter of Lebanon’s first prime minister, Riad ElSolh.

Made his first billion dollars trading land and acting as a point man for multinational companies seeking local contracts.

Mohammed Al Amoudi, $10.1bn

Controls an empire that has investments across Africa, Europe and Saudi Arabia.

Born in Ethiopia to a Saudi father and Ethiopian mother.

Moved to Saudi Arabia as a young man and made his first billion in the late 1980s through construction, aided by an early government contract to help build the country’s underground oil storage facility.

Assets include Sweden’s largest oil refiner, Preem AB, real estate and numerous contracting businesses.

In Ethiopia, where he’s said to be the biggest private investor, he owns hotels and a gold mine, and has invested millions of dollars in largescale farms growing coffee and rice. – Bloomberg