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I raised this possibility a couple of days ago
Saudi Crown Prince poised to take over as King: sources
BREAKING NEWS -- URGENT -- REPORT SAUDI KING HAS STEPPED-DOWN!
Saudi Crown Prince poised to take over as King: sources
Anti-corruption
drive expands with arrest of hundreds of businessmen; $800 billion in
assets targeted
Pepe
Escobar
Asia Times,
10 November, 2017
Anti-corruption drive expands with arrest of hundreds of businessmen; $800 billion in assets targeted
The
Saudi “anti-corruption” crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman (MBS), which initially netted 11 princes and a few dozen
ministers and former ministers, has caught up with hundreds of
businessmen, who are being detained in the luxurious Ritz Carlton and
other hotels in Riyadh. The Wall Street Journal reports the Crown
Prince is targeting an astonishing $800 BILLION in assets believed to
be held in 1,700 frozen bank accounts.
The
latest speculation, to which we give substantial credence, is that
the Crown Prince will top up his coup by having himself crowned King
“in a matter of days,” according to our sources. Al-Arabiya, the
Saudi-owned pan-Arab television news channel, posted on Twitter
on Wednesday that the abdication may be imminent but then
deleted the post.
How
will this play out further?
Not
even the key players probably know. But it is entirely possible –
in the midst of feuding in the royal family – that the entire Saudi
Monarchy could be overthrown and replaced by a military junta much as
happened in Egypt in 1952, when King Faruq was overthrown and
replaced by military leaders Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Reuters
reports that Saudi authorities
have questioned 208 people in an anti-corruption investigation and
estimate at least $100 billion has been stolen through graft, a top
official said on Thursday as the inquiry expanded beyond the
kingdom’s borders.
“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,” Attorney-General Sheikh Saud
al-Mojeb said in a statement.
Anti-corruption
authorities have also frozen the bank accounts of Prince Mohammed
bin Nayef,
one of the most senior members of the House of Saud, and some of his
immediate family members. Nayef had been appointed as Crown Prince in
2015 and was first in line to the throne until he was replaced by MBS
in June. He is a nephew of King Salman and grandson of the founding
monarch King Abdulaziz.
The
investigation has spread to the neighboring United Arab Emirates, as
the UAE central bank has asked commercial banks and finance companies
there to provide details of the accounts of 19 Saudis,
commercial bankers told Reuters on Thursday.
The
UAE, particularly Dubai, is one of the main places where
wealthy Saudis
park their money abroad. In addition to bank accounts, they buy
luxury apartments and villas in Dubai and invest in the emirate’s
volatile stock market.
Some
wealthy Saudi individuals
have been liquidating assets within Saudi Arabia,
the UAE and other Gulf countries this week, apparently in an effort
to move money out of the region and escape the crackdown, private
bankers and fund managers said.
In
Riyadh, rich individual investors have been selling equities heavily,
although buying by state-linked funds has helped to support the
market. In Dubai, shares in real estate developers have sunk as
investors worry about the impact on the property market of a pull-out
by Saudis.
The
UAE commercial bankers said they had not been asked to freeze
the Saudi accounts
at their institutions, but they believed the central bank’s request
for information might be a prelude to such action.
The
risk of the accounts being frozen “jeopardises Dubai’s pitch as a
private banking centre”, said a Gulf-based banker, adding: “Banks
in the UAE are full of Saudi money.”
One
senior banker at an international bank with business in Saudi Arabia
said his institution had already frozen some accounts, both inside
the kingdom and outside it, in response to Saudi government
requests.
The
bank is conducting its own investigations into accounts linked to
people who have been detained, the banker said without elaborating.
Another
banker in the region said his institution was receiving more
enquiries from Saudi clients
about cross-border financial transactions, but it was handling the
enquiries with extreme caution as there could be further action by
regulators.
Game of Chess: Saudis seeking to check-mate Iran as Tehran’s regional power grows
The
conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia has escalated after a missile
attack near Riyadh airport carried out by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran's president warned Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that it will
achieve nothing by threatening the might of Iran after Saudi Arabia
laid the blame for the attack on Tehran.
Pepe Escobar
Oh man, gotta love this email by a good American intel friend.
It's an established fact that my Sputnik columns were being read by the relevant powers in D.C.
Oh man, gotta love this email by a good American intel friend.
It's an established fact that my Sputnik columns were being read by the relevant powers in D.C.
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