Over the decades, there were other potential sources of income for many royals. Some earned fees by acting as fixers on the government’s international deals. Saudi Arabia is traditionally one of the world’s biggest arms importers, buying weapons mainly from the U.S., U.K. and France.
They have also made money by flipping land or serving as silent partners in businesses, benefiting from a law that until recently required companies in some industries to be at least 25% owned by locals. These practices were among the targets of Prince Mohammed’s 2017 crackdown.
Members of the House of Saud have been prolific spenders. Bloomberg analysis identified assets worth at least $30 billion, spanning racehorses, country estates, public equities, an African game farm, $1.6 billion worth of superyachts and more.
Some own stakes in businesses. Prince Sultan bin Mohammed Al Kabeer, for example, is the billionaire chairman of the kingdom’s biggest food and beverage company, Almarai. The children of the late Prince Abdullah bin Faisal run Al Faisaliah Group, a conglomerate that acts as a local partner for Danone, Philips Healthcare, Accenture Plc and Sony Corp.
Prince Alwaleed founded Kingdom Holding Co., which has investments in hotels, real estate and equities, including Citigroup Inc., Snap Inc. and Twitter Inc. Alwaleed was the most recognizable figure imprisoned at the Ritz. His detention, which he later put down to “a misunderstanding,” ended in January 2018, after 83 days, when he reached an undisclosed agreement with the government.
The oldest son of King Salman’s third wife, Prince Mohammed had only briefly held a high-ranking government role before his father ascended the throne. Then he swiftly assumed titles including minister of defense, chief of the royal court and special adviser to the king.
His personal business interests are extensive, according to Gulf States News, the publication of political risk consultancy CbI, which connected him to 20 to 25 companies, most of them founded around 2009 and operating in real estate, manufacturing and telecom. Other assets were identified through information disclosed in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published details of his family’s connections to more than a dozen offshore entities, some linking the crown prince to the 2015 purchases of the Chateau Louis XIV outside Paris for $300 million and the superyacht Serene, one of the world’s most valuable, with a market value of $320 million.
Other assets include a South African game farm, a stake in a Saudi telecom company worth about $30 million and interests in a handful of private companies, including a bank, a real estate developer, a fish farm and a petrochemical transportation company that he controls through a holding company called Tharawat, named for the Arabic word for treasures.
The prince doesn’t like to talk about his royal privilege or how it enriched him, and he has professed not to pay attention to the criticism he attracts.