Billionaire Venture Capitalist Saudi Prince Arrested

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the prominent billionaire investor, has been arrested. He is one of the richest and most influential investors in the world. He has big investments in Twitter, Lyft and Citigroup. He has gone into business with Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg.

Prince Alwaleed made early bets on some of the technology world’s biggest stars, also including Snap, riding a boom that catapulted many young entrepreneurs to top the rich lists, and earned him handsome returns. Prince Alwaleed also made an early bet on JD.com, a Chinese online retailer, anticipating that country’s emergence as a vast e-commerce market.

Alwaleed has a net worth of about $18 billion.

At least 10 other princes, four ministers and dozens of former ministers were arrested. King Salman, decreed the creation of a powerful new anticorruption committee, led by his favorite son and top adviser, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Alwaleed (Kingdom Holding) Investments

Financial Services

– Banque Saudi Fransi 1050.SE (16.19 percent)
– Citigroup (C.N)

Technology

– Apple (AAPL.O)
– Careem
– Lyft
– Motorola (MSI.N)
– Twitter (TWTR.N)

Retail

– eBay (EBAY.O)
– Fashion Village Trading Company
– Jingdong
– Saks Incorporated
– Savola 2050.SE

Publishing

– Time Warner (TWX.N)
– Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O)

Entertainment
– Euro Disney

Petrochemicals

– National Industrialisation Company 2060.SE (6.23 percent)

Hotels and management

– Four Seasons, George V Hotel, Paris
– The Plaza, New York
– Savoy Hotel, London
– Fairmont Raffles Holding International
– Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
– IFA Hotels and Resorts (IFAH.KW)
– Kingdom Hotel Investments
– Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts

Real Estate

– Ballast Nedam
– Canary Wharf (Songbird Estates)
– Jeddah Economic Company
– Kingdom Centre
– Kingdom City
– Kingdom Riyadh Land

Other

– Parent company of Flynas (34.08 percent)
– Kingdom Schools
– Medical Services Projects Company
– Kingdom Africa Management

21 thoughts on “Billionaire Venture Capitalist Saudi Prince Arrested”

  1. My two sisters just got back from a week in Saudi Arabia. One is a federal environmental scientist and another is a public relations specialist. They were there working with the Saudi government setting up an environmental police force with special training to go after poachers who kill a lot of passerines for fun, which isn’t ok. They put a bunch of their trip on social media and it looked like they were getting treated with respect. Just to imagine that the Saudi government is at a point where they want some civic thing like that makes me think they’re making some good decisions about the role of government. Haven’t really had a chance to catch up with them since they got home but I gotta admit I’m seeing some positive signs from the Crown Prince. Women driving? That’ll make a big difference.

    • Off-topic I know, but…

      A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Wikipedia

      So, poaching any normal bird then?

      • Saudis love to hunt – they don’t care if it’s an endangered species or whatever – they like to indulge themselves according to their traditions.

      • Shooting pigeons? That is so turn of the century.

        Wonder if they fish for Perciform fish (i.e. ray finned fish or most fish).

    • The Saudi Govenrment beheads people
      There is the crime of sorcery
      The US supports such people
      Giving them lots of money

  2. This post unfortunately shows a lack of deeper understanding of the events occurring. The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is currently consolidating control over the kingdom in order to effect a fundamental change in the character and direction of Saudi society. Talal’s arrest is merely to ensure that he doesn’t get in the way of the transition.
    Those concerned with the country’s future see the handwriting on the wall – they understand that oil prices are on the way down, Renewables are on the way up, and fundamentalism is going out of control, posing a threat to international stability and security, particularly for its patrons/protectors/guarantors. So the Crown Prince is looking to do a hat-trick, embarking on a bold new course to reinvent the kingdom. Obviously this is a high-risk strategy.

    • Since there are a lot of powerful people in Saudi who stand to lose under this new plan, watch for possible coups in the future. Religious conservatives in particular will feel threatened by moves to modernize the kingdom.

      • Re: Coups. The King seems to have anticipated your concern by removing the head of the SANG (Saudi Arabian National Guard…the royal family personal bodyguards), and the head of Saudi Naval Services. Also explains why the RSAF hasn’t had a permanent replacement since the previous Commander died over 2 years ago…

        • Yeah, I’d already read that in the news that’s already out. I’m talking about further stresses down the road that will bubble up into uprisings led by malcontents. Those are yet to come. There’s no way that such a fundamental change in trajectory for this rigid country will just go off completely smoothly without a hitch. As those hijabs disappear, the honor killings will go up, the angry clerics will preach fire and damnation, the state welfare payments will get cut, there may be angry unemployed people, etc, etc. Saudi may even try to steal some business from UAE, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, etc, and put them on edge.

    • International stability and security must be challenged if you have a regime that kills people because of a religious police. I would not want THAT stability in my country

      • I agree, other good ideas, emptying an Ohio would work but is not very nice: killing millions of innocents, huge environmental damage and not very political correct.
        Problem with nation building is that it only work in the specific case there an evil dictator has taken over an decent country.
        As in Panama.
        It has not worked other places. Yes Japan and Germany, kill 10% of population then promise to ramp up killings hard if its any resistance.
        Soviet had few problems because of brutality.
        And yes its an downer.
        Fracking and letting China control the area will probably work best

        • When the US invaded other countries because of lies and this results in disaster, did anyone in the US paid (I mean, life in prison) for this?

      • I think you’re missing the point, which is that Saudi leadership understand that their theocratic formula for governance and stability is at the heart of a growing set of problems which put it in a fundamentally untenable position. So the Saudi Crown Prince is acting to move his country on a fundamentally different path, towards modernity and economically sustainable growth, diversifying beyond its limited oil-based economy.

    • Well I don’t know about the post showing a lack of deeper understanding. More like the post just reported the events and didn’t go into anything about the reasons.

    • I’ve heard the Crown Price has made investors uneasy with things like the war in Yemen which is causing investments to be shifted to other countries. That might be behind this.

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