Saudi Arabian authorities arrested the head of one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s megaprojects on allegations of corruption, one of the most high-profile cases since the start of a major anti-graft crackdown in 2017.
Amr AlMadani, chief executive officer of Saudi’s Royal Commission for AlUla, was detained on charges including abuse of authority and money laundering, according to a statement by the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, Nazaha.
The arrest makes AlMadani one of the more senior officials to have been named by Nazaha as part of its sweeping corruption crackdown, which has ensnared billionaires, royals and government ministers since a dramatic mass detention at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh more than six years ago.
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While Nazaha often announces cases against hundreds of officials a month, its been rare for someone responsible for such a strategic government project to be implicated.
AlMadani is alleged to have “illegally obtained contracts for the benefit of the National Talents Company,” of which he is also an owner, according to the statement. Several others were also arrested in relation to the allegation, Nazaha said.
A spokesperson for National Talents denied AlMadani had been involved in the company since 2017.
Oasis City
Al-Ula, an ancient oasis city in the country’s northwest, is undergoing a $15 billion transformation into a luxury travel spot as part of Prince Mohammed’s vision to draw in some 70 million international tourists a year to the kingdom by 2030.
The 4,000-year-old heritage site has been redeveloped into a archaeological attraction and cultural destination, in a bid to attract visitors. Abeer Al Akel is now listed as acting CEO of the Al-Ula project, according to the Royal Comission’s website.
Saudi Arabia was largely closed off to tourists outside of Muslim pilgrims until 2019. Since then, MBS, as the crown prince is known, has been easing restrictions to open up the economy in the spirit of weaning the economy off its oil dependence
