Saudi firms sue ex-spymaster in Canada over US$3.47 bil fraud

OTTAWA – Saudi state-owned companies have sued the country’s former intelligence czar at a Canadian court, alleging that he stole billions of dollars, according to documents obtained yesterday by AFP.

The 10 subsidiaries of Tahakom Investment Co – which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – said in the civil suit filed at the Ontario superior court that Saad Aljabri committed “massive fraud” totalling at least US$3.47 billion (RM14.03 billion).

Aljabri, exiled in Canada, was a top aide to Prince Mohammed Nayef, who was deposed as heir to the throne by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a 2017 palace coup.

A campaign advocating for Aljabri in a statement said he and his family will “fight the recycled corruption allegations vigorously, and are confident they will succeed in dismissing them”.

Prince Mohammed Nayef remains in detention in Riyadh.

The Ontario court has ordered a freeze on Aljabri’s assets worldwide.

The suit describes estates in Saudi Arabia, luxury condominiums in Boston, and several properties in Canada as ill-gotten gains.

It accuses Aljabri of having funnelled money from companies funded by Saudi Arabia for counterterrorism activities – including buying security equipment, flying agents around the world and paying informants – to himself, and his family and friends.

“Although the investigation is ongoing, it is clear that from at least 2008 to 2017, Aljabri masterminded and oversaw a conspiracy incorporating at least 21 conspirators across at least 13 jurisdictions to misappropriate” the funds, said the suit.

His supporters said the suit is an attempt to distract from “the brutality” of the Saudi crown prince, also known as MBS.

Aljabri last August filed a suit in the United States alleging that MBS sent a “hit squad” to Canada in 2018 to try to kill and dismember him in the same way that Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul in October that year.

But, the plot was allegedly detected and disrupted by Canadian police before they could act.

The murder of Khashoggi sparked an international outcry, and tarnished the reputation of the oil-rich kingdom and the crown prince.

Aljabri said MBS wants him dead because he is close to Prince Mohammed Nayef, and because he has intimate information on the de facto Saudi ruler that would sour the close relationship between Washington and Riyadh. – AFP, January 30, 2021