The murder business
"I'm very troubled by the reports to date about Jamal Khashoggi. We are following the situation closely, and unless a substantially different set of facts emerges, I won't be attending the FII conference in Riyadh."
Those were the words of Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on October 12, 2018, explaining his decision not to attend Saudi Arabia's FII investment conference.
On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post who was critical of the Saudi regime, was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was at the consulate to obtain papers for an upcoming wedding. While there, he was forcibly restrained and injected with a fatal dose of a drug. Following his death, Khashoggi's body was dismembered with a bone saw.
At the time of Khosrowshahi's initial statement, there was no official determination about who was responsible for Khashoggi's murder. Since then, an intelligence assessment has been released by the United States, which determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) personally approved the operation:
We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince [Mohammad] bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decision-making in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of [Mohammad] bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi.
MBS has denied any involvement, but the evidence against him is overwhelming.
While more facts link Saudi Arabia to Khashoggi's murder, Khosrowshahi seems to be less "troubled" by the situation. On Tuesday, Khosrowshahi accompanied President Trump to a lunch in Saudi Arabia with MBS and other Saudi leaders. The meal took place "in an ornate room with blue and gold accents and massive crystal chandeliers." Afterward, Khosrowshahi (and Trump) attended a Saudi-U.S. investment forum.
Khashoggi was not top of mind. "[T]he [Saudi] Kingdom represents one of our top growing markets,” Khosrowshahi said.
Khosrowshahi was one of about 30 business leaders to join Trump at the lunch. Several prominent attendees, like Khosrowshahi, had previously boycotted economic engagement with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi's murder.
Blackstone's Stephen A. Schwarzman pulled out of the 2018 FII conference due to "concerns about the disappearance and suspected killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi." But Schwarzman attended Tuesday's lunch with Trump and the investment forum that followed. During the forum, Schwarzman bragged that the $20 billion he invested in the Saudi Public Investment Fund had generated annual returns of 17.5%. "We have a lot of happy friends," Schwarzman boasted.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink withdrew from the 2018 FII conference, but attended Tuesday's lunch with the Saudi leaders with Trump. At the investment forum, Fink predicted that Saudi Arabia would become "a top 10 economy in the world."
Google boycotted the 2018 FII conference, canceling the participation of Diane Greene, the leader of the company's cloud division. But Google President Ruth Porat attended the Saudi lunch with Trump on Tuesday. In November, Google "unveiled plans to establish an advanced AI hub in Saudi Arabia."
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times and a biotech investor, also backed out of the 2018 FII conference but attended the Tuesday lunch with Trump.
Trump, who is in business with the Saudis through the LIV Golf Tour and is building a new Trump Tower with Saudi financing, used the occasion to shower MBS with praise, calling him "wise beyond his years" and an "incredible man."
How to get invited to a Saudi lunch with Trump
Many of the attendees of Tuesday’s lunch, or the companies they represent, also contributed large sums to Trump’s inauguration fund. Of a list of 20 executives who were at the lunch given to the New York Times by the White House, 11 of them or their companies donated a total of over $10 million.
Asset management companies BlackRock and Blackstone each donated $1 million. As did Boeing, IBM, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Uber. Coca-Cola donated $289,750. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Palantir CEO Alex Karp also chipped in $1 million apiece.
Other executives on the trip have given Trump their backing, financial or otherwise, in other ways. While Elon Musk did not donate to Trump’s inauguration committee, he did spend over a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump and other Republicans elected in 2024.
Soon-Shiong axed the LA Times editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris. After the election, he also spiked an op-ed that was mildly critical of Trump’s cabinet picks. Most recently, Soon-Shiong, who is a surgeon and founder of a biomedical company, became a champion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and killed another LA Times op-ed criticizing Kennedy.
It's blood money. Pure and simple.
Rotten to the core. Thanks for your coverage of the situation.