Saudi crown prince boasts he has Trump’s backing to torture princes and seize their wealth as he sends billionaire Twitter owner to prison in ’anti-corruption’ probe

The arrests drew praise from President Trump, who tweeted on November 6: 'I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing… Some of those they are harshly treating have been 'milking' their country for years!'

Held here: The Riyadh Ritz Carlton became the world's most luxurious prison after the November 4 arrests. The remaining detainees are now in a real prison, it emerged last week

New prison: This is the Al-Ha'ir prison where Alwaleed is now being held. It is also used to hold terror suspects

Kingdom Holding owns substantial stakes in tech firms including Twitter, Lyft, Snapchat firm Snap Inc and Ebay. 

Other holdings include the Four Seasons Hotel chain in which Kingdom Holdings and Bill Gates are majority owners and a significant stake in Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank. 

Alwaleed owns a yacht formerly owned by Trump and a private Boeing 747 jet upholstered in gold and fitted with a throne – which will also be seized, according to the Saudi source.

The prince had been a fierce critic of Trump in the run-up to the election, using his twitter account to criticize him. 

Alwaleed was moved recently from the Ritz Carlton to Al-Ha'ir prison, south of Riyadh, which is also used to hold terror suspects and those protesting the kingdom's human rights abuses.

This weekend it was revealed he is in talks to 'settle' his case but had not succeeded in satisfying MBS. 

'He offered a certain figure but it doesn't meet the figure required from him, and the attorney-general hasn't approved it,' a Saudi government official told Reuters.

Another source told the news agency  that he had offered to make a 'donation' to the Saudi government, which would avoid any admission of wrongdoing, and to do so from assets of his own choosing. But the government refused those terms, the source said.

Questions over what is happening to him and to Kingdom Holding had mounted.

A report in The Times in December said that Alwaleed was facing a demand for $7 billion and still holding out.

Companies in which Alwaleed holds a significant stake did not respond to requests for comment from Dailymail.com.

The sticking point was that Alwaleed had offered 95 per cent of his Kingdom stake, but MBS wanted cash or assets, the Financial Times reported. 

It is unclear exactly what would happen if Alwaleed ceased holding 95 per cent of Kingdom Holdings and whether it would have to be declared to regulatory authorities in the U.S., UK and other countries where companies he has stakes in are registered.

However he also has more tangible assets, the source said. 

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