Washington: A secret $1bn US property empire smartly built by Royal Saudi family has been revealed, The Independent reports.
The secret empire is the subject of a bitter legal dispute possibly revealing how much reach the ‘family’ has in American business.
The main person behind this empire is Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd, not so famous son of the late King Fahd for what conservative circles termed ‘indecent’, according to court documents.
However, prince lawyers are making efforts to keep their ultimate ownership secret.
According to the record in a New York courthouse, over the past 15 years, Prince Abdul Aziz and a relative, Sheikh Khalid N Al Assaf, the empire comprises of a property portfolio that spans the US, from BAE offices in Reston, Virginia, near the capital Washington, to the headquarters of the television company Starz in California.
They also purchased two of the four buildings in the office complex that BP uses as its US headquarters in Houston, Texas.
“The royal family held ownership of the properties through a complex network of foreign and US companies,” says David Hill, a Texan real estate executive who says he helped manage the portfolio, in his affidavit.
“Since 1996, Prince Abdul Aziz and his co-owners made a profit of $379m buying and selling properties in the US and they still own 15 complexes across nine states, for which they paid $978m.”
The affidavits further says Prince Abdul Aziz met his US property managers repeatedly at Los Angeles, the Bahamas, Cancun in Mexico, and at the Al-Yamamah royal palace in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The claims about the Saudi royal family’s extensive US property holdings have come to light in a case in New York Supreme Court involving Mr Hill and a business partner, Howard Hallengren, The Independent further reports.
The two men and the firms they worked for mismanaged the portfolio and took unapproved fees, it is claimed. The pair say the claims are untrue and are petitioning the court to prevent themselves being dragged into arbitration.
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