After weeks of deafening silence surrounding the fate of Saudi Arabia’s richest man, Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal, arrested last month in an anti-corruption purge, it has emerged authorities in the Gulf monarchy are seeking at least $6 billion for his release.
The 62-year-old head of the Kingdom Holding Co. was rounded up with dozens of Saudi government officials and ten other members of the kingdom’s royal family as part of a probe spearheaded by the heir-apparent to the gulf monarchy, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
While Prince Salman has consistently defended the detention of senior officials as part of a much-needed crackdown on graft, he has been criticized for what detractors have characterized as a thinly veiled power grab.
Prince Bin Talal, who had eschewed an official position in the Saudi government and preferred to focus on his own companies and high-profile projects, had in the past exerted a soft power on world business leaders comparable to that of Bin Salman and his father King Salman.
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