SNAPSHOTS

Saudi Arabia: The Crown Prince's Corruption Crackdown Is Over, for Now

Jan 24, 2018 | 23:55 GMT

(Stratfor 2018)

When a Saudi public prosecution official announced the end of the anti-corruption campaign, it looked more like the end of a first phase than the end of an era. The splashy infographic posted on Twitter left big questions about the corruption campaign's future, as well as the status of Saudi billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal. Released in English, the announcement was almost certainly aimed at reassuring international investors. As the Saudi government gears up for an initial public offering of Saudi Aramco stock sometime this year or next, investors are looking for stability, transparency and certainty. Yet this was a strange way to provide that, not least because of some odd accounting in the Saudi announcement. Though 350 suspects were rounded up in November, the public prosecutor said that 90 had been released and that 95 were still being detained, leaving the status of the remaining 165 an open question....

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