Saudi Arabia’s attorney general says at least $100bn (\u00a376bn) has been misused through systemic corruption and embezzlement in recent decades.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said 201 people were being held for questioning<\/a>\u00a0as part of a sweeping anti-corruption drive that began on Saturday night.<\/p>\n He did not name any of them, but they reportedly include senior princes, ministers and influential businessmen.<\/p>\n “The evidence for this wrongdoing is very strong,” Sheikh Mojeb said.<\/p>\n He also stressed that normal commercial activity in the kingdom had not been affected by the crackdown, and that only personal bank accounts had been frozen.<\/p>\n Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said investigations by the newly-formed supreme anti-corruption committee, which is headed by 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman<\/a>, were “progressing very quickly”.<\/p>\n He announced that 208 individuals had been called in for questioning so far, and that seven of them had been released without charge.<\/p>\n “The potential scale of corrupt practices which have been uncovered is very large,” the attorney general said. “Based on our investigations over the past three years, we estimate that at least $100bn has been misused through systematic corruption and embezzlement over several decades.”<\/p>\n Sheikh Mojeb said the committee had a clear legal mandate to move on to the next phase of its investigation and that it had suspended the bank accounts of “persons of interest” on Tuesday.<\/p>\n “There has been a great deal of speculation around the world regarding the identities of the individuals concerned and the details of the charges against them,” he added. “In order to ensure that the individuals continue to enjoy the full legal rights afforded to them under Saudi law, we will not be revealing any more personal details at this time.”<\/p>\n Among those reportedly detained are the billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal<\/a>; Prince Miteb bin Abdullah<\/a>, a son of the late king who was also removed from his post as National Guard chief on Saturday; and his brother Prince Turki bin Abdullah<\/a>, a former governor of Riyadh province.<\/p>\n By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n It is the Saudi weekend now and the country is still reeling from the monumental changes taking place.<\/p>\n So far, so good, as far as the crown prince and his supporters are concerned. “Phase One”, as the attorney-general calls it, is complete. Around 200 leading royal and business figures have been “called in for questioning” and there has been no visible resistance, no disaffected army hammering at the palace gates, no calls to arms on social media. Quite the opposite, in fact.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia’s overwhelmingly young population has largely welcomed this clean-out of the kingdom’s notoriously profligate elite. The more hardline Wahhabi religious clerics, still licking their wounds from the crown prince’s recent announcement that the country needs to become more tolerant of other religions, will also be welcoming the purge.<\/p>\n The questions on everyone’s mind though, are how far will it go and who will be next?<\/p>\n Others are said to include Alwalid al-Ibrahim<\/a>, owner of the television network MBC<\/a>; Amr al-Dabbagh<\/a>, former head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority<\/a>; Khalid al-Tuwaijri<\/a>, former chief of the Royal Court<\/a>; and Bakr Binladen<\/a>, chairman of the Saudi Binladen Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n At least some of them are believed to be held at the five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter. Paying guests were asked to vacate their rooms late on Saturday and the hotel’s exterior gate has been shuttered since Sunday.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the US said it had urged the Saudi government to handle any prosecutions stemming from the probe in a “fair and transparent” manner.<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch<\/a> meanwhile called on Saudi officials to “immediately reveal the legal and evidentiary basis for each person’s detention and make certain that each person detained can exercise their due process rights”.<\/p>\n The detentions follow a wave of other recent arrests of clerics, human rights activists and intellectuals, for which the authorities have not given specific reasons.<\/p>\n This material belongs to: CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n Corrupt practices by Saudi royals and officials have cost the kingdom at least $100 billion over decades.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia’s attorney general, Sheikh Saud Al Mojeb, gave the estimate of the losses in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n He also said that 208 individuals have been questioned as part of an extensive investigation. Seven of them have been released without charge.<\/p>\n “Based on our investigations over the past three years, we estimate that at least $100 billion has been misused through systematic corruption and embezzlement over several decades,” the kingdom’s top legal official said.<\/p>\n “The evidence for this wrongdoing is very strong, and confirms the original suspicions which led the Saudi Arabian authorities to begin the investigation in the first place.”<\/p>\n Saudi authorities\u00a0arrested dozens of royals,<\/a>\u00a0businessmen and senior\u00a0<\/strong>government officials on Saturday in a surprise anti-corruption sweep. Those arrested included billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the former head of the royal court Khaled Al-Tuwaijri and Saudi media mogul Waleed Al-Ibrahim.<\/p>\n The Saudi central bank has frozen the personal accounts of people under investigation. And authorities in the United Arab Emirates have\u00a0reportedly asked banks<\/a>\u00a0there for information about assets held by 19 Saudi royals and officials.<\/p>\n It looks like the Saudi authorities may be gearing up for a lengthy probe. Some those arrested are\u00a0reportedly being held\u00a0<\/a>in Riyadh’s 5-star Ritz Carlton, which has been out of bounds to other guests since the weekend. Now it appears to be “fully booked” until February 1, 2018.<\/p>\n Marriott\u00a0(MAR<\/a><\/span>), which owns the hotel, declined to comment on the situation at the Ritz citing “guest privacy.”<\/p>\n “We do not discuss the guests or groups with whom we do business or who may be visitors of the hotel,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The arrests followed the establishment of a new anti-corruption committee headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It has the power to investigate, arrest, issue travel bans and freeze the assets of those it finds corrupt.<\/p>\n Saudi officials say the arrests are part of\u00a0an effort to clean house<\/a>\u00a0in support of the crown prince’s push to overhaul the country’s economy and end what he once called its “addiction” to oil. Sweeping changes are already happening, including subsidy cuts, new taxes and the end of a controversial ban on women driving.<\/p>\n “The strengthening of [bin Salman’s] position should benefit near-term reform momentum given that the crown prince has been the dominant driving force behind Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030<\/a> reform agenda,” said Fitch ratings agency<\/a> in a report on Thursday, but it also warned of an increased risk of a political backlash.<\/p>\n –Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.<\/p>\n This material belongs to: The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n ISTANBUL \u2014 Saudi Arabia said Thursday that it had detained more than 200 people as part of an expanding \u201canti-corruption\u201d campaign that has led to the arrests of at least 11 princes and some of the country\u2019s wealthiest and most prominent business tycoons.<\/p>\n The arrests began last week, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s attorney general, Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb, said in a statement on Thursday that the investigation was proceeding \u201cquickly.\u201d The probe has found that at least $100 billion had been \u201cmisused through systematic corruption and embezzlement over several decades,\u201d the statement said, without providing details.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia\u2019s sudden and\u00a0sweeping drive to punish graft<\/a>, a deeply rooted problem in the country, appears to be closely linked to an effort by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to eliminate challengers and consolidate power before his father, King Salman<\/a>, dies or abdicates, analysts say.<\/p>\n The arrests over the past few days include potential rivals, such as Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was head of the Saudi National Guard and a favored son of the late King Abdullah<\/a>. Also detained was\u00a0Prince Alwaleed bin Talal<\/a>, a billionaire investor who holds large stakes in companies such as Twitter and Apple.<\/p>\n The anti-graft campaign has overlapped with a spike in tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, its regional nemesis: a coincidence of timing, or a sign that Mohammed and the Saudi leadership were mounting a broad offensive against enemies at home and abroad.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/anticorr.media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/98670420_d7ea2995-c973-426e-8aad-34d4df53b7b7.jpg\")
‘No visible resistance’<\/h3>\n
Saudi Arabia’s $100 billion corruption scandal<\/h3>\n
Saudi Arabia detains more than 200 people in expanding \u2018anti-corruption\u2019 campaign<\/h3>\n