From The Age:
The Sultan of Brunei, who is embroiled in the most expensive family feud in legal history, secretly transferred $US8 billion ($A9 billion) of state money into his personal bank account.
The money, which exceeds Brunei's entire annual gross domestic product, was paid in over four years.
It funded an extraordinarily lavish lifestyle, which included spending $100,000 on guards for the exotic bird cages at his palace....MORE
Here's Portfolio.com's Market Movers take:
The Sultan of Brunei pays his five PR people $12 million each. But still ends up with really bad press:
The total bill was $40 billion.
The gifts included $2,570,050 for masseuses and acupuncturists; $14,955,000 for a house supervisor in Singapore and $13,500,000 for a second house supervisor; $2,580,350 for a badminton coach;
$12,000,000 for each of his five public relations officers listed as Yoya, Prall, Vicky, Shelly and Janet.
Desmond Browne, QC, the British barrister, also appears on the gift list in the case, which will end with the biggest legal bill in British history of about $408 million. He was given $5000.
