A senior US lawmaker has challenged a Saudi Arabian official’s refusal to voluntarily testify before a Senate committee investigating the kingdom’s controversial golf deal with the PGA Tour, saying officials should be prepared to be subject to American laws and oversight if they invest in the US.
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut who serves as chairman of the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, also said he would consider “other legal methods” to force Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to testify if he continued to refuse.
Al-Rumayyan, who also serves as the chairman of Saudi Aramco and the Premier League club Newcastle United, was given until 18 August to comply with the committee’s documents request.
Any move to testify before the Senate could have significant implications for al-Rumayyan, including being subjected to questions about the controversial so-called “anti-corruption” drive headed by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. That effort saw assets transferred to the PIF, and the alleged use by the kingdom of PIF-owned jets to transport Saudi agents who killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
There is no suggestion that al-Rumayyan had any knowledge or personal involvement in the matter.
While the increasingly fractious exchanges between the Senate committee and the PIF appear to be centered on the Saudi-backed merger between the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour, Blumenthal’s comments strike at larger concerns in Washington over Saudi Arabia’s investment ambitions.
Blumenthal said the PIF, which is worth about $780bn, already has “extensive business dealings” in the US and was much more than a “passive investor”. The sovereign wealth fund holds a $3.5bn stake in Uber, has recently established a US subsidiary, and holds investments in prominent US venture capital firms.
“In short, PIF cannot have it both ways: if it wants to engage with the United States commercially, it must be subject to United States law and oversight,” Blumenthal said.
The Senate committee investigating the PGA deal sent its first request to al-Rumayyan on 21 June, inviting him to testify at a 11 July hearing. The PIF declined, citing scheduling conflicts.
In a letter released on Wednesday, Blumenthal said the committee’s second request – for al-Rumayyan to testify at an acceptable date in September – was met with a letter from PIF’s legal counsel, saying that al-Rumayyan would be “an inappropriate witness” because he was a minister “bound by the kingdom’s laws regarding the confidentiality of certain information”.
The senator rejected the claim, pointing to a US district court decision in California, which ruled that al-Rumayyan was not exempt from testifying in legal matters connected to the PIF’s commercial activities. The court added that Saudi Arabia’s “sovereign considerations” were diminished by the PIF’s intent to benefit from its investments in the US.
The PIF’s position – that al-Rumayyan deserves sovereign immunity because of his position as a Saudi official, and his obligations to the Saudi state – appears to directly contradict the kingdom’s public stance on other deals.
In the UK, the PIF’s takeover of a controlling stake in Newcastle in October 2021 was given the green light after the club was given “legally binding assurances” that the kingdom would not have any control over the club.
The PIF has declined in the past to address the apparent contradiction. The fund did not immediately comment on the Blumenthal letter.
