KNews.id- Princes of Saudi Arabia’s royal family are secretly selling houses, yachts and expensive artworks abroad. It was done to generate cash after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 36, drained many of the resources they used to support extraordinary spending. Those expensive assets previously represented a major turnaround in the fortunes of the top princes following the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s.
Citing a Bloomberg report, Monday (25/4), the money from the sale of oil is mostly spent on assets that are hard to sell or run out with expenses reaching USD30 million per month for several royals with large staff and luxurious lifestyles. However, all of these assets became vulnerable after Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the de facto ruler, made changes in government policies.
The sale of expensive assets was exposed by people close to the princes who made the sale. The sources said the princes needed cash to pay routine bills including property maintenance, taxes, staff salaries and parking fees for their planes and boats.In some cases, the sources continued, they were also motivated by a desire to own less conspicuous assets to avoid the attention of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has restricted his privileges and access to state funds within the Al Saud family since his father took the throne in 2015. The Saudi Arabian government, according to a Bloomberg report, was aware of the sale.
“These people are not working, they have a lot of staff and they are afraid [of Prince Mohammed],” said one person familiar with the transaction. “Princes want cash in their back pockets and no wealth in sight.
“Among the assets recently sold were land in England worth USD 155 million, two yachts more than 200 feet long and Mughal jewelery given as a wedding gift by the late king. The sellers, including the former ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
“Clearly they have been reduced to a strict and disciplined regime and they have had to live from that,” said British historian Robert Lacey, who has chronicled the Saudi ruling family since the 1980s.
“Prince Mohammed is here for a long time,” he added. According to him, Pangerna Mohammed’s powers are for the long term and reshaping things for the long term.A representative for Prince Bandar said he sold all of his assets overseas.
“Because he sees a bigger benefit from investing in the kingdom with the amazing work the crown prince is doing and creating all the investment opportunities,” he said.Prince Mohammed has removed relatives seen as potential rivals, including uncles and older cousins arrested in 2020, and cut benefits for thousands of royals, including paid holidays abroad or utility bills. and water in their Saudi palaces. Those benefits have run into hundreds of millions of dollars in annual costs to the Saudi government.
The top royals raise billions of dollars a year through oil and real estate sales, as well as business deals involving the government, which Prince Mohammed bin Salman has gradually pushed them away. The government pressured members of the royal family in other ways, rolling out a $2,500 tax on every domestic worker excluding the fourth employee this year, costing some royals hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
US diplomatic cables from the 1990s released by WikiLeaks show that some royals used to build wealth by taking loans from local banks without paying them back, expropriating land from commoners, or exploiting the foreign worker visa system for profit.People familiar with the kingdom’s finances say princes continue to benefit from such schemes until Prince Mohammed bin Salman comes to power. A system of benefits for thousands of Saudi princes, which US diplomatic cables say costs the government billions of dollars a year. According to sources in Saudi, it remains intact.
The sources continued, many princes have adjusted their lifestyles due to changes in the global economy and changes in Saudi Arabia that have “turned off the tap” of their source of money.
“They have a standard of living that exceeds any expectation,” said another person familiar with the transaction. “The cost is out of this world. It takes time for them to adjust.” The Saudi Ministry of Media did not respond to questions about the finances of members of the royal family. Several Saudis currently liquidating assets were temporarily detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel in 2017 in what critics called extortion and a power play by the crown prince, who described it as an anti-corruption move. Many were released only in exchange for a financial settlement. Arrests of prominent figures continue, according to the anti-corruption commission.
The prisoners at the Ritz-Carlton include the late Prince Turki bin Nasser. The former air force commander was one of several Saudi officials investigated by Britain’s Ministry of Defense on suspicion of accepting bribes from BAE Systems PLC in exchange for lucrative contracts to supply fighter jets and other military equipment to the kingdom, which became known as the “Al-Armaments Deal.” -Yamamah” in the 1980s.Most Saudi royals no longer have access to such deals under Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Representatives for Prince Turki’s estate could not be reached and a surviving brother did not respond to questions about the British investigation, which the prince has never publicly disclosed.Prince Turki sold a 203-foot yacht in 2020 and a $28.5 million home in Los Angeles’ exclusive Beverley Park community in 2021, according to people familiar with the transaction. He died before the sale of the home was completed, but his family could not be reached for comment.
The terms of his consent could not be studied after his arrest at the Ritz-Carlton. His net worth was previously estimated at more than $3 billion, according to a Saudi official. Others who sell their assets are never caught. For example, in 2021, Prince Bandar sold $155 million worth of land in the Cotswolds, west of London, according to people close to him and familiar with the transaction.
He was once close to the center of Saudi power, and his two sons now hold important positions as ambassadors in Washington and London. In 2007, the British government ended its investigation into allegations that he had enriched himself from the “Al Yamamah Agreement” without making any findings. Prince Bandar emphatically denied that the numbers involved represented a secret commission for him. Prince Bandar is the son of the late Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, one of the main branches of the royal family whose sources of income have dried up under Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Meanwhile, Prince Turki is the son-in-law of Prince Sultan.Prince Sultan’s wealth is due in large part to his access to government funds, personnel and resources during his nearly half century as minister of defence. Bank statements reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that in just one year, he transferred tens of millions of dollars from a government account at Saudi American Bank directly to a proxy account in Switzerland to help finance his lifestyle.
“It has stopped 100%,” said a person familiar with the activity. Pressured by Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s actions, Prince Sultan’s heirs demolished a mansion in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood that sold for a record $290 million in 2020.
That was revealed by people close to the nobles who knew about the transaction. One of Prince Sultan’s sons, Prince Khalid bin Sultan, who led troops with General Norman Schwarzkopf during the first Gulf War in 1991, sold a mansion in Paris next to the Eiffel Tower for over $87 million in 2020 and a 220-foot superyacht. in 2019.
It was revealed by people close to him and familiar with the transaction. Some of Prince Sultan’s sons are also trying to pawn their global assets to raise money to cover the shortage of traditional sources of income. One of them, Prince Fahd bin Sultan, was sued by Credit Suisse in November for allegedly failing to repay a loan he took to refinance a $55 million superyacht and $48 million property in south London. It has been confirmed by court documents. Prince Khalid and Fahd, contacted through representatives, declined to comment.Gary Hersham, founder of luxury property specialist Beauchamp Estates, who was involved in several of the Sultan’s family deals, said that generally speaking, the younger generation of Saudi royalty no longer needs or uses the massive properties that their predecessors bought. They are big shoppers and prefer to have cash.”They want less luxury, that’s the trend,” he said, pointing to some of his recent smaller home purchases. (AHM)
