Tackling corruption: Why Saudi Prince Muhammad’s approach raises questions
NOVANEWS
By James M. Dorsey
Leave aside for a moment questions of due process. Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s three largest corporate failures explains why Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s recent moves look more like a power and asset grab than a credible effort to eradicate corruption.
Dependency on government contracts was at the core of the bankruptcy of Saudi Oger, owned by the family of embattled Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and the near-demise of the Saudi Bin Laden Group.
Granted, the $22 billion downfall of 70-year-old Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Company (AHAB), which took down two Bahraini banks as well as the Saad Group in one the largest financial collapses of the 2009 global credit crunch, occurred because of mismanagement, lack of corporate and financial gov...