PAccording to the WSJ, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has restricted the access of his potential competitors in the struggle for the throne to sources of enrichment. After that, some members of the royal family sold their assets abroad
Mohammed bin Salman
The princes of Saudi Arabia are selling real estate and yachts abroad because of the financial difficulties they faced after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdul-Aziz Al Saud restricted their use of part of their sources of income, writes The Wall Street Journal. According to the interlocutors of the newspaper, after the tightening of restrictions, the princes do not have enough money to maintain houses, pay taxes, pay subordinates, pay bills for parking planes and ships. In addition, members of the royal family are trying to get rid of the most expensive assets so as not to attract the attention of the Crown Prince.
Sources of the publication report that Prince Turki binNasser Al Saud is one of those who were detained at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh in 2017 during an anti-corruption investigation, in 2020 he sold his 60-meter yacht, and in 2021 his house in Los Angeles, worth $28.5 million (by the time of completion of the transaction printsumer).
Prince Bandar bin Sultan Alsaud sold $155 million worth of real estate in Britain in 2021, sources told the WSJ. Other heirs of the late Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, after the pressure from the Crown Prince began in 2020, sold a castle in London worth $ 290 million. One of his sons, Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, sold a house in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, for $87 million.
The total amount of assets sold exceeded $600 million. Some princes are also forced to mortgage their property to compensate for the lack of funds.
The Saudi government is aware of these transactions, writes the WSJ.
According to one of the interlocutors of the newspaper, the princes “do not work, they have a lot of subordinates, and they are afraid of the heir to the throne, Muhammadabin Salman. They want to have funds that would not be conspicuous, the source added. Another person familiar with the ongoing transactions noted that the princes are used to a very high standard of living and they need time to learn how to live in new conditions.
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In 2018, Saudi princes detained at the Ritz Carlton returned over $100 billion to the state treasury.
As the newspaper notes, the country’s authorities have recently introduced a number of new restrictions on members of the royal family. For example, they were deprived of paid holidays abroad and payment of water and electricity bills from the treasury. This year, the government plans to introduce a tax on domestic workers: only four will be allowed without paying tax, and for each subsequent prince will have to pay $2,500.
According to sources of The Wall Street Journal, the princes continue to earn by illegal means: appropriating the land property of the population, making loans in banks and not returning them. One of the interlocutors of the newspaper said that the authorities continue to spend billions of dollars annually on their salaries.
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