Blumenthal: Saudi Official Must Testify on LIV/PGA Deal

Sen. Richard Blumenthal called out a Saudi Arabian official Wednesday who has refused to testify before the U.S. Congress on LIV Golf’s proposed merger with PGA Tour.

The Connecticut Democrat, who heads the Senate’s investigations panel, warned Yasir Al-Rumayyan in a letter that Saudi investors should be prepared for more stringent U.S. oversight if he continues his holdout.

Al-Rumayyan, who heads the sovereign wealth fund of the Saudi Royal Family, was given until Friday to comply with the committee’s demands or risk its taking “other legal methods” to force him to speak.

Blumenthal also eyed other reasons besides the floated merger of LIV and PGA Tour for Al-Rumayyan to testify, in particular the controversial “anti-corruption” drive of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s office has claimed that assets flowed from the wealth fund to fund the jets used by agents who killed former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Business dealings in the U.S. by Saudi entrepreneurs, realtors, and investors were also highlighted by Blumenthal, who noted that the Saudi fund was much more than a “passive investor” in the country.

“In short, PIF [Public Investment Fund] 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 wrote.

It’s the latest chapter in the U.S. Senate committee’s probe into the proposed deal, which was announced earlier this year after a bitter rivalry between the two golf leagues that involved several legal battles.

Blumenthal said in a hearing last month that the merger was “about much more than the game of golf.” Instead, he argued, it is “about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence … to cleanse its public image.”