Osama Bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind
Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), a company headed by Osama’s half-brother is to be taken under the authorities' managerial control, with some of its assets transferred directly to the state, according to sources quoted by Reuters news agency. Bakr bin Laden is among the scores of businessmen and royals detained in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh as part of a corruption probe.
This takeover comes after an accident on one of the company’s construction sites killed at least a hundred people in Mecca in 2015. This could mark an ignominious end for the family name, already tied forever to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks.
There had been discussions over SBG’s fate even before Bakr bin Laden’s arrest. It has faced deep financial difficulties, partly as a result of the Saudi government being unable to pay what it owed due to the fall in the price of oil. Estimates of SBG’s debts at one stage reached $30 billion and it found itself unable to pay its sub-contractors and employees, thousands of whom were forced to go back to their home countries.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Osama’s rabid support for the mujahidin in Afghanistan in the 1980s was financed by personal wealth derived from the family fortune. However, he was cut off after he turned against the Saudi state and its western links in the 1990s.
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