"As a Saudi prince rose, the Bin Laden business empire crumbled"

This piece was published September 27, five days before Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance.
It is simply astounding how western politicians and journalists overlooked the nastiness at the heart of the Saudi system to see what they wanted to see in Mohammed bin Salman:
"Look REFORMER!" "Look, Women Driving!"

Brushing aside the kidnapping of the Princes and the confiscation of their wealth, the financial gang (including moi) talked of the SoftBank hookup and the $500 billion NEOM new city. Not really caring about MBS' personal corruption. And all the geostrategists turning a blind eye to the war crimes the Saudi's have been committing in Yemen since 2014 because the enemy of my enemy is my friend and the Saudi's were going to settle the whole Shia - Sunni thing once and for all.

Everyone sees what they want to see.

A Special Report from Reuters:

The Bin Ladens once ranked among Saudi Arabia’s most powerful business families. They built palaces, mosques and cities on the orders of successive kings. But that changed as Prince Mohammed bin Salman grew in influence. This is the story of the Bin Ladens’ fall.

JEDDAH/RIYADH – Soon after Prince Mohammed bin Salman became second in line to the throne of Saudi Arabia, he turned his sights to the sprawling empire of the Saudi Binladin Group.

In 2015, the prince, then 29, approached Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the family-owned construction giant, and told him he wanted to become a partner in the firm, according to six people briefed on the exchange.

The prince pitched his offer as a patriotic opportunity to help transform the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It would also, he said, ease the financial strain on the company as the government reined in infrastructure spending to cope with a drop in oil prices.

As head of the Saudi royal family’s favoured building contractor, Bakr bin Laden was accustomed to obliging royal requests. But he hesitated at the prince’s approach, these sources said. The construction mogul replied that he needed time to consult other family shareholders.

In the months that followed, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known by many simply as MbS, grew more powerful, rising to crown prince in June 2017. He championed economic reform and took aim at widespread corruption.

The Bin Ladens, in contrast, experienced a dramatic fall from grace.

Three Bin Laden brothers, senior executives in the family firm, were among more than 200 businessmen, royals and officials detained in November 2017 in an anti-corruption drive ordered by the prince. Bakr and two of his brothers, Saleh and Saad, eventually transferred their combined 36.2 percent stake in the family firm to the state in April 2018. Bakr, in his late 60s, is still in custody, although no charges have been made public.

Reuters spoke to more than two dozen Saudi Binladin Group employees, family friends, government officials, bankers and businessmen to tell the story of the fall of the Bin Ladens. Few of the sources would go on the record, citing the Bin Ladens’ long-standing preference for privacy and restrictions on public criticism of the Saudi government. These sources charted the family’s reversal of fortune, starting with that 2015 exchange between Bakr and Prince Mohammed and ending with the state taking management control of the family firm.

The Bin Ladens’ undoing exposes the contradictions in Prince Mohammed’s plan to build a modern economy, some economists say. He has embraced privatisation, hoping to inject dynamism, yet the state has intervened in firms such as Saudi Binladin Group. He has tackled corruption, yet there has been little transparency around the process. One Saudi businessman said the Bin Laden saga had become a “symbol of what's happening between the government and the private sector - a breakdown of trust.” 

Asked to comment, a senior government official said Prince Mohammed did not seek a stake in Saudi Binladin Group in 2015. The Saudi government, he added, had saved the company from collapse after it experienced financial difficulties “coupled with extensive supervisory and governance weakness.” Saudi Binladin Group was “a vital Saudi commercial entity,” he said. The Bin Laden family and its representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

NEW KING, NEW RULES

The Bin Laden clan has known trouble before: The black sheep of the family, Osama, masterminded the attacks on America of Sept. 11, 2001. But the Bin Ladens, led by Bakr, survived that storm. Their reckoning began with King Abdullah’s death in January 2015.

Saudi Binladin Group had grown from humble beginnings in 1931, nourished by the Bin Laden family’s good relations with successive rulers. Royal contracts were arranged informally, sometimes scribbled on paper over coffee. 

“It was the ‘inshallah bukra’ [God willing, tomorrow] way of doing business, with a meeting that might have been scheduled for 11 a.m. in the office, rescheduled to 4 p.m. and then actually taking place at 2 a.m. at the palace,” said Thomas Fallows, an American banker who worked in Riyadh for eight years.

In the last months of King Abdullah’s life, oil prices tumbled to $60 a barrel from above $100 at their peak, slashing the kingdom’s revenues. By the time 79-year-old King Salman acceded to the throne, projects commissioned in the boom years were becoming a burden. These included a Riyadh financial district, an airport in Jeddah and an economic city on the Red Sea coast.

Salman quickly appointed Prince Mohammed, a previously little-known son, as deputy crown prince. Mohammed also took control of the kingdom’s important economic and defence portfolios.

...MUCH MORE

See also July 2017's "So What's Up With Bin Laden's Son and the Saudi Royals?".

We have been keeping tabs on Yemen longer than most but also guilty of the focus thing:
October 2014 
News You May Have Missed While Living Your Life: "Al Houthi rebels: Yemen’s new masters"
January 2015
Yemen President Resigns Under Pressure From Abductors 
March 2015
Saudi Arabia Moving Artillery to Border With Yemen
March 2015
"Oil prices surge after Saudi air strikes in Yemen"
 June 2015
"Princes fleeing Saudi Arabia after Yemen’s scud missile attack"
June 2015
"Fistfight breaks out at Yemen peace talks"
August 2015
"Oil Surges To $45 After Saudi Troops Invade Yemen"
May 2016
"Beware of the failure of Yemen’s central bank"
November 2017
"Iran threatens to hit Saudi, Abu Dhabi and Dubai air and sea ports, ships more missiles to Yemeni Houthis"
September 2018
"Dissent in Riyadh: Saudi Royals Bicker Over Yemen War"

That's a lot of posts for a generalist blog on a coutry the size of a postage stamp.