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Saudi Arabia eyes $100bn in settlements from anti-corruption purge

Saudi Arabia eyes $100bn in settlements from anti-corruption purge
Saudi Arabia eyes $100bn in settlements from anti-corruption purge

Riyadh - Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s recent anti-corruption campaign comes with a new development where detained princes and businessmen are offered the chance to pay a settlement in order to avoid trial.

Saudi authorities expect that the state may recover between $50 billion and $100 billion in such settlement deals, an unnamed official told Bloomberg.

Earlier this month, Saudi security forces arrested around 11 princes and dozens of ministers and businessmen including people who are listed among the world’s richest in its anti-corruption crackdown or what it has named the “purge”.

A large number of Saudis have welcomed these settlements in order to put an end to the corruption threatening the state.

The purge list included princes and billionaires from the royal family topped by Al Waleed bin Talal, Miteb bin Abdullah, Nasser bin Aqeel al-Tayyar, and other well-known names, who have a great impact on the Saudi and global economies.

Consequently, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), the Saudi central bank, has frozen the trading accounts and assets of those arrested or under investigation, the official added.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Express newspaper cited sources as forecasting the total value of the settlements could reach $300 billion instead of $100 billion.

Last week, Saudi minister of energy and industry Khalid Al-Falih stated that the purge would not harm foreign investment or the highly anticipated plan for the initial public offering (IPO) of oil giant Saudi Aramco.

“I am in touch with many foreign investors, everybody understands that this is a very limited domestic affair,” Al-Falih told reporters at the Bonn climate conference. “The government is simply cleaning house for something that is way overdue,” he added.