In Saudi Crackdown, There’s More Than Alwaleed’s Empire At Stake

Almost two months into it, Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption is yielding at least some of the $100 billion the kingdom is targeting. Dozens of former officials and businessmen have exchanged part of their wealth for freedom.

But in the increasingly drawn-out case of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the public face of the Saudi royal family to many foreign executives and investors, there's more at stake than taking over his global business empire and talks on a settlement have hit an impasse.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is about to enter a crucial few months that will show his true motives and the scope of his power.

How the case unfolds will help investors and diplomats answer a question puzzling them since the nightly raids of Nov. 4: Whether the purge is an effort to root out graft before selling shares in the country's oil giant, or simply a shakedown to boost state coffers while he asserts himself at home and abroad.

People with knowledge of the matter say Alwaleed is balking at demands that could see him relinquish control of Kingdom Holding Co. He also is resisting any suggestion of wrongdoing because of the impact it would have on his reputation, they said. The prince owns the vast majority of the $9 billion conglomerate, which has stakes in household names from Citigroup Inc. to Twitter.

"The Alwaleed case will define the crackdown to western investors," said Emily Hawthorne, Middle East and North Africa analyst at Texas-based advisory firm Stratfor. The longer Alwaleed remains behind closed doors, the more the government "appears the unreasonable actor," she said.

The crushing of opponents fits into a pattern of what Arab and Western diplomats describe as an aggressive policy that is unsettling even some of Saudi Arabia's allies.

Alwaleed and other remaining suspects are held at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, a palatial hotel that hosted U.S. President Donald Trump in May. No official charges have been made public against any of the detainees, who numbered 159 at a count earlier this month.

The 62-year-old nephew of King Salman used his royal wealth to invest in industries from banking to aviation, hospitality and real estate. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that authorities are demanding at least $6 billion to settle his case. His net worth has declined by about $2 billion to $18 billion since his detention, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Prince Miteb, son of the late King Abdullah and the former head of the powerful National Guard Corps, was released after paying the equivalent of more than $1 billion, a senior Saudi official said last month.

"Prince Alwaleed is powerful and well connected, but this may not end well given that he is in a battle with an even more powerful group," said Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University in Washington. The purge is "a harsh way to show that some of the old ways of doing business are over to a great degree," he said.

Kingdom Holding said in a Nov. 6 statement it had the full confidence of the Saudi government. Officials at the company didn't respond to a request for further comment when contacted by email. The government's Center for International Communication said it can't comment due to Saudi laws protecting an individual's right to privacy.

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