Uncovering Saudi Arabia’s Golf Case: How It Could Reveal Kingdom Secrets

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The people who manage the Saudi Arabian government’s money that is invested in the U.S. don’t say much about their connections to important American business and political people. They usually wear ‘MAGA’ hats and go golfing with former President Donald Trump as a way of showing this.

In California, the PGA Tour is being sued by a new golf league called LIV. This golf league is owned by Saudi Arabia and usually countries are blocked from U.S. courts. However, the judge decided that in this case, the judge said that the links between Saudi officials and the government means they can be involved in court cases in the U.S.

Even though Saudi Arabia is not happy with the decision, a U.S court ruled that lawyers of the PGA tour can ask questions to the high officials in Saudi Arabia about important matters like information & deals related to President Trump and others that Saudis kept secretly.

Furthermore, U.S District Judge Beth Labson Freeman stated that Saudi Arabia did break some laws concerning the immunity given to countries by the United States.

Yasir al Rumayyan has been placed in charge of the Saudi government’s huge wealth, which is worth more than $600 billion. Labson Freeman said he’s really busy because of this role and a golf tour he’s managing.

The PGA Tour is saying that a guy named al Rumayyan recruited players and made decisions for the golf league. But lawyers from Saudi Arabia are claiming that he was just an eager investor, not someone actually running the business.

Saudi Arabia is investing in the U.S. economy and politics, but this may result in having to answer questions in court about what they are doing.

The Saudi government doesn’t want US courts to be able to control what they do. Last year, the US backed them and said that US courts weren’t allowed to judge a prince over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. US intelligence says that this prince told his aides to kill Khashoggi in 2018. This killing caused big problems between the Biden administration and the prince, who is in charge of Saudi Arabia.

Usually, it’s not allowed to take legal action against the leaders and government of one country in a different country. But in 1976, Congress made an exception when it comes to commercial activities.

The PGA Tour said on Friday that Saudi Arabia and its powerful leader often switch their position on claiming to be legally protected from lawsuits, depending on if it is beneficial for them in different business cases and lawsuits.

Lots of people who disagree with the kingdom’s actions believe that most likely, this approach may not help them avoid legal hassle.

Donald Baker, an ex-government lawyer and Justice Department official, thinks the U.S. court system has control over running the LIV golf tours and competitions.

Baker believes a case could be taken to the U.S. courts in California’s Northern District, which could lead to members of the Saudi royal family being asked questions about the situation. If this happens, decisions about whether other business deals involving Saudi government will have to be made separately depending on its circumstances.

Sarah Leah Whitson, who runs the Democracy for the Arab World Now rights group founded by Khashoggi, said that if someone has what is called “sovereign immunity”, it means they can’t be held accountable for their business deals and contracts. They can use the judicial system to ensure their agreements and laws are obeyed, but nobody will be allowed to punish them.

The Saudi-funded professional golf tour has been going on for a second year now, with the popular slogan being “Golf, but louder”. This tour is distinctive due to its loud music and incredibly high prize money. It’s also noteworthy that it has certain partnerships with Donald Trump, who this year will host three tournaments at his courses. However, how much money was exchanged in these deals is unknown.

A lawsuit has been filed by the players against PGA Tour, and it looks like Saudi Arabia is involved. It seems that 93% of the company “LIV” is owned by a fund from the Saudi government. Neither LIV nor the sovereign wealth fund answered questions regarding this case.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has been in power for eight years, and during his rule, his son Prince Mohammed has made the country’s wealth fund a major tool to invest money both inside and outside the kingdom. He is at the top of this fund. The idea behind it is to make money from something else than oil (which currently funds most of the economy).

Prince Mohammed and fund governor al Rumayyan are in charge of a $30 billion fund, which have invested in big US companies like Uber, Lucid (which makes luxury electric cars that compete against Tesla), Paypal, Costco, etc.

The fund also helped to make the Trump family closer by using their golf courses and giving Jared Kushner’s investment firm $2 billion.

Rumayyan is a part of Uber’s board. He likes to play golf with President Trump. Recently he caused Elon Musk to get very angry (a tweet storm) and go to court because of something Musk said regarding a possible deal with the Saudi Arabian government, where they would invest in buying Tesla’s stocks.

The Saudi government’s money has been put towards sports. They’ve started the LIV golf tour, bought a British soccer team called Newcastle United, and even held races for Formula One cars, horses with an unusual prize pot, and other different kinds of tournaments like snooker, boxing and chess!

Saudi Arabia is trying to make people think it’s a friendly and modern country. But human rights organizations say that the Prince is just using sport events to hide all the bad things like the killing of Khashoggi, arresting activists, and not ending the war in Yemen. Some US people also believe that Saudi Arabia is supporting one political party by giving them money from their oil wealth.

The people in charge of the kingdom are trying to make it more popular by using sports as a way to gain support from many different people. Kristian Ulrichsen, an expert on The Middle East, said this is because they want to capture people’s enthusiasm and excitement.

When Saudi Arabia was looking to buy Newcastle United, they promised in a legally binding way that the country would not be responsible for running the team, even though one of its people is the chairman. People said it should get looked at again because of something a California court said, but nothing changed.

Lawyers of the PGA Tour said that even though Saudi Arabia normally cannot be sued, they gave up their right when they shared documents involving a case against a former intelligence official who worked for the old King. The U.S. stepped in to stop this case because it might reveal information which could be damaging to national security.

In the golf lawsuit, the LIV players and a Saudi investment company are claiming that what the PGA is doing is wrong and hurting LIV. The PGA says it’s because of how people think of Saudi Arabia and their ruler Prince Mohammed. Doug Ferguson helped write this report.