Let's Go Down the Rabbit Hole!

[Mystic Wanderer]

OMG!  I couldn't believe this when I saw it.  Prince al-Waleed has been released after being "detained" for over two months.
People on the Q board are speculating that he "sang like a songbird" to get his release. His financial holdings in the U.S. have also been seized. Still, I'm surprised they let him go.  I think that was a huge mistake!  

By
Summer Said and
Benoit Faucon
Updated Jan. 27, 2018 10:17 a.m. ET
86 COMMENTS

DUBAI—Saudi authorities on Saturday released billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, more than two months after he was detained in a widespread purge of the kingdom’s elite.

Saudi officials said Saturday that Prince al-Waleed came to an undisclosed settlement with the government that allows him to remain chairman of his company, Kingdom Holding Co., one of the country’s biggest conglomerates. He is also a major investor around the world, including large stakes in Twitter Inc. and the Four Seasons hotel chain. The status of those investments and the rest of his $17 billion fortune remained unclear Saturday.

The release of one of the world’s richest men marks a new phase in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s self-described corruption crackdown. The 62-year-old Prince al-Waleed was one of dozens of royals, senior government officials and businesspeople rounded up in early November, a wave of arrests the Saudi government billed as part of a remake of the kingdom’s society but criticized by some rights groups and analysts as a power grab.

Now, the Saudi government is moving to release those cleared of corruption allegations or who settled them, while sending the holdouts to prison to await trial. Prince al-Waleed was among several prominent Saudis to secure release in recent days.

Efforts to reach Prince al-Waleed were unsuccessful on Saturday. He was already back at his house in Riyadh on Saturday and is expected to resume his business activities as normal, people familiar with the matter said.

Saudi authorities demanded at least $6 billion from Prince al-Waleed to free him, people familiar with the matter have said, among the highest figures they sought from those detained in a makeshift prison at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton.

Prince al-Waleed’s release comes after international investors raised concerns about the treatment of a man who had been a sort of independent Saudi ambassador to the world. Two French presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, spoke to Prince Mohammed about these concerns.

Ahead of his release on Saturday, Prince al-Waleed in a Reuters interview granted from his initial place of detention at the Ritz-Carlton denied reports that he had been mistreated and called accusations against him a misunderstanding that would be cleared up soon.

Read more here:  Saudis Release Prince al-Waleed, One of the World’s Richest Men