War of Thrones: How $18 billion Saudi prince ended up in custody. Craving for success

Every reporter who takes an interest in Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal can hope to one day receive a small gift from His Highness. The driver will bring a bulky green leather bag with the logo and name of al-Waleed's Kingdom Holding, which weighs at least 4.5 kilograms. Like a nesting doll, the green leather bag contains a green leather bundle, which in turn contains the annual report bound in green leather. The only thing not wrapped in leather is a dozen of the world's most famous magazines, each with a photo of a prince on the cover.

These magazines are the most eloquent item in a costly pile of information. On the cover of Vanity Fair, he appears as a typical member of high society: in mirrored glasses, a pale blue sports jacket and an open-necked shirt. He can be seen on the covers of two issues of Time 100: once in a collage alongside people like George Soros, Li Ka-shing and Queen Rania, and the second time alone, dressed in traditional Saudi taub and gutra. There's even a Forbes cover where he, dressed in a Steve Jobs-style turtleneck, glares at the reader imperiously, and the caption reads: "The most astute businessman in the world." But one important detail does not change: all magazines are fake. Instead of simply sending out newspaper clippings, the Prince's staff has made or edited magazine covers from scratch and pasted them over fine glossy printed articles mentioning the Prince.

For Prince al-Waleed, image is everything, with particular attention being paid to those who can provide further proof of his status. He is dating very important people. Ask him yourself. It looks like his staff prepares a press release with a photo every time he meets someone significant (Bill Gates), someone who might one day become significant (Twitter CEO Dick Costolo), or someone who seems significant (Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Saudi Arabia).

In 2003, he was photographed standing behind George W. Bush, King Abdullah of Jordan, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. When his authorized biography Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince was published in 2005, this photo was placed on the back cover: this time alwaleed was in the foreground thanks, as the prince later admitted in an interview with Forbes, photoshop. For several months, starting in the second half of 2011, the prince even began to put me in a hidden copy almost daily or forward his messages to me: some were addressed to the wife of the president of one European country, others to a well-known top manager of a large technology company in the United States, some to a cable talk show host. The content was transmitted under conditions of confidentiality, but the desire to impress was quite clear.

However, in terms of external confirmation of his status, his first priority, according to seven people who used to work for him, is the Forbes list of billionaires.

“He wants the world to evaluate his success or position in society through this list,” says one of the former aides to the prince, who, like most of his former colleagues, chose to remain anonymous for fear of revenge from the richest man in the Arab world. "It's extremely important to him." Former employees say that the palace officially sets goals such as a place in the top ten or twenty.

However, for several years now, al-Walid's former managers have been telling me that the prince, although he is indeed one of the richest men in the world, systematically exaggerates his fortune by several billion dollars. This prompted Forbes to take a closer look at the prince's holdings and come to the following conclusion: at times it seems as if he takes the valuation of his holdings from another reality, including in relation to Kingdom Holding, whose shares are traded on the exchange. Their price falls and rises in accordance with factors that, oddly enough, have more to do with the Forbes billionaire list than with economic reasons.

Al-Waleed, 58, declined to speak to Forbes while writing this article, but his chief financial officer, Shadi Sanbar, was blunt: "I would never have thought Forbes would stoop to cheap scoops and rumours." The discrepancies in the assessment of the prince's fortune, which we noticed, say a lot about him and how to determine the true size of someone's wealth.

Luxury and persistence

Prince first came to the attention of Forbes in 1988, a year after our first billionaire issue. The source is the prince himself, who contacted a Forbes reporter to talk about the success of his Kingdom Holding for Trading & Contracting company - and make it clear that he should be included in the next list.

This message marked the beginning of a series of persuasion and threats that have been going on for a quarter of a century and associated with the position of the prince on the list. Of the 1,426 billionaires on the list, not one - not even the vain Donald Trump - has made much of an effort to influence his place in the rankings. In 2006, when Forbes concluded that the prince was actually worth $7 billion less than he claimed, he called me at home the day after the list came out and seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"What do you want? he pleaded, referring to his personal banker in Switzerland. "Tell me what you need."

A few years ago, he had the CFO of Kingdom Holding fly to New York from Riyadh to make sure Forbes was using the numbers he claimed. The financial director and his companion refused to leave the editorial office until they secured guarantees (after a detailed discussion, the editor convinced them to leave, promising to double-check everything). In 2008, at the request of the prince, I spent a week with him in Riyadh, where I examined his palaces, aircraft and jewelry, which, according to him, was worth $ 700 million.

Keeping up with Prince Al-Waleed, I learned from my week with him, requires stamina - and lots of caffeine. He regularly goes to bed no earlier than 4:30 in the morning, sleeps 4-5 hours, and then everything repeats. “Those who worked with the prince had no life,” recalls a former employee. “Working hours were extremely strange: from 11:00 to 17:00 and then from 21:00 to 2:00.” Even his twenty-something wife, Ameera al-Taweel, has to adjust to this schedule (she is his fourth wife, the prince has always been married to only one woman at a time). While I was there, the driver drove her every evening in a dark blue Mini Cooper to her own palace.

Every day he is surrounded by unimaginable luxury. His main palace in Riyadh has 420 rooms: marble, pools and his portraits.

If the prince needs to go on a business trip, he has his own Boeing 747, sort of like Air Force One, but unlike the president's plane, it has a throne. If al-Waleed wants to slow down, he goes to his "resort", located on 120 acres of land on the outskirts of Riyadh. There are five artificial lakes, a small zoo, a miniature version of the Grand Canyon, five houses and several verandas where his entourage dine.

This dinner is very important for al-Walid. To stay in shape, he eats one big meal a day around 8:00 pm, although given his biological rhythms he calls it "dinner". On one side of him are the "palace ladies" who run the household in the house where the prince is at the moment, on the other - male servants. As a rule, all eyes in this semicircle are directed to the TV. And just in case anyone forgets the prince's spotlight, CNBC is usually on.

Call of blood

This craving for success, albeit in a veiled form, was inherited by him. If ever anyone felt compelled to succeed, it is Prince al-Walid, the grandson of the founders of two separate countries. His maternal grandfather was the first prime minister of Libya. His paternal grandfather, King Abdulaziz, created Saudi Arabia. “So he is in a position where he needs to prove his superiority in something,” says Saleh al-Fadl, a Saudi Hollandi Bank manager who has worked with the prince for several years since 1989 at his United Saudi Commercial Bank. While his royal cousins ​​are involved in Saudi politics - one is interior minister, others are governors - al-Walid, al-Fadl said, "wants to make a name for himself in business."

Al-Walid's father, Prince Talal, had an entrepreneurial streak and tried to reform as finance minister in the early 1960s until he was exiled for his progressive views. At the same time, when al-Walid was seven years old, he divorced his wife, the daughter of the first Prime Minister of Libya, who returned to her homeland with a young prince. There, according to his authorized biography, he developed a habit of running away from home for a day or two and sleeping in unlocked cars. Later, al-Walid attended a military school in Riyadh and still adheres to the rigid discipline he learned then.

Prince acquired a Western mentality while studying at Menlo College, in Atherton, California. Upon his return to Saudi Arabia, he became known as a person with whom foreign companies could cooperate if they needed a local partner. When he talks about his early career, he usually explains that he received $30,000 as a gift from his father, a $300,000 loan, and a house. Although even his biography does not give a clear idea of ​​how much more he received from family members, it is probably a lot, since by the age of 36 (in 1991) he was able to make life-changing business decisions.

While regulators forced Citicorp to increase its capital base in the face of bad loans in developing countries, al-Waleed, then unknown to anyone outside of Saudi Arabia, raised an $800 million stake. was already worth $10 billion, making al-Waleed one of the 10 richest men in the world at the time, and earning him the nickname he helped promote, "The Buffett of Saudi Arabia."

But unlike Warren Buffett, who picked winners for decades, al-Waleed has not proven himself to be a consistent investor.

For the past 20 years, he's supported underdogs like Eastman Kodak and TWA. Large investments in media (Time Warner and News Corp.) did not live up to expectations. While he had his fair share of successes, notably eBay and Apple, al-Waleed missed another opportunity when he sold most of the latter's shares in 2005. In other words, he has yet to repeat his success with his investment in Citi. “It was his biggest deal that got him noticed. It was a big risk, a big sum, a big bank,” a manager who was close to al-Walid in the past told Forbes. "Since then, he hasn't done anything even close to comparable."

Nevertheless, in the exaggerated world of al-Waleed, everything is unambiguous. On the start page The Kingdom Holding website has four words in large print: "The World's Best Investor."

When the prince decided to take Kingdom Holding public in July 2007, it sounded odd on paper. Although the CFO makes the usual arguments for publicity, the prince already owned 100% of the company. It consisted of holdings whose shares had already been placed on the stock exchange, and a miserable 5% were in free float. In other words, he had no partners to consider, no liquidity problems, and no desire to raise large capital - the three main reasons to go public and put up with all the attendant difficulties. Shares listed on stock exchange Saudi Arabia traded sluggishly. No analyst is purposefully following them. Inside the company, the mood is similar to the mood of glossy magazines produced by employees. "It was just fun," says a longtime employee of al-Waleed. - It was fun to go public. There is a buzz in the media."

How much money does the prince have?

Of course, media hype is only "fun" when the stock trades well. The prince, who was, as always, concerned about his image, had no doubt that he would. "I'm glad the IPO is going well," he told Arab News the day the listing took place. “It means the Saudis are realizing the potential of the #1 company in the kingdom.” Never mind that oil giant Saudi Aramco has flooded the economy with cash and supported legions of royalty for decades. "He intends to become the richest man and public figure and he did it,” says al-Fadl of Saudi Hollandi Bank. “It will be much harder to maintain status.”

These words were confirmed shortly after the IPO. At the time of the listing, when Kingdom was valued at $17 billion, the majority of the company consisted of Citi stock, worth almost $9.2 billion. But the summer of 2007 marked the beginning of a long and precipitous decline that was accelerated by the onset of the global financial crisis. Since July 2007, Citi's share price has declined nearly 90%. Kingdom Holding shares fell between early 2008 and early 2009, losing 60% in value. As a result, the prince's fortune decreased by $8 billion and at the time of the release of the Forbes list of billionaires for 2009 reached only $13.3 billion.

But then, in early 2010, Kingdom Holding shares magically went up, and their price rose 57% in the 10 weeks to the day in February when Forbes finishes its next billionaire list, while Citigroup shares fell 20%. The prince has risen sharply in the Forbes rating to 19th place ($19.4 billion).

In 2011, the situation repeated itself. In the 10 weeks before Forbes finalized the list, Kingdom Holding stock rose 31%, while the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange index rose 3% and the S&P 500 index rose 9%. (Prince al-Walid was ranked 26th in the world that year, and was worth an estimated $19.6 billion.) The same thing happened in 2012, when Kingdom shares rose 56% in the 10 weeks to mid-February, while the Saudi market rose only 11% and the S&P 500 index rose 9%. This time, al-Waleed was ranked 29th, with a fortune of $18 billion, after Forbes did not take into account his claims to many assets not owned by Kingdom Holding in the assessment.

At the same time, several former managers close to al-Walid began telling Forbes the same story: the prince used political weight to inflate his fortune.

Their testimonies were based on close observation of stocks, not direct evidence. But one manager said he couldn't find any other explanation for the fact that the share price rose sharply at the same time as the key asset, a large stake in Citi, fell.

"It's the national sport," says one of al-Waleed's early managers, offering his own explanation for the sudden swings in the market. - The players are few. They come with considerable funds and buy from each other. There are no casinos in the country. It's a gambling house for the Saudis." The same is said by an analyst who watches Saudi Arabia but preferred to remain anonymous because his remarks could damage his business ties: "This market is extremely easy to manipulate" - and even easier if you, like Kingdom Holding, - " Few shares in free float. CFO Sunbar replies, "No one can rationalize short-term changes in stock prices or market trends."

Whatever the driving force, last year was a record year. In 2012, Kingdom Holding's net income grew by only 10.5% to $188 million, the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange index rose 6% and the S&P index rose 13%, but the value of Kingdom shares jumped 136%. Sunbar cites "the market's confidence that the company is able to deliver on its promises over time and deliver significant returns to shareholders."

Now the capitalization of Kingdom Holding is 107 times the amount of revenue - this does not fit into the value strategy that the prince uses as an investor. There are examples of this valuation: Amazon has a market capitalization of 224 times its pre-tax revenue in 2012. Sunbar also highlights that there were many other securities on Tadawul whose price increased by more than 130% in 2012.

The problem with Kingdom is the discrepancy between the share price and real assets or economic fundamentals.

One fifth net assets Kingdom is a financial investment in shares that trade at a multiple of 82% below the holding. And it hardly makes sense for investors to invest in the rest, because it is almost impossible to find out what belongs to the company. When the company went public, it issued a detailed 240-page prospectus listing shares in 21 companies, including predominantly US firms such as News Corp., Apple and Citi, as well as stakes in various hotels and properties in Saudi Arabia.

But so far, the prince's press office has been issuing almost daily releases about who he meets in annual reports and financial records for last years the names of the shares or holdings the company currently owns are missing, not even 7% of the voting shares in News Corp. are mentioned. We know about this acquisition from documents that News Corp. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ernst & Young, Kingdom's auditors, were also concerned about the discrepancy between price and assets. In 2009 and 2010, they signed annual reports, but both times noted big difference between the market valuation of the shares and the valuation given by the holding. The difference was so big, the auditors say, that the prince invested 180 million of his own $600 million worth of Citi shares for free to Kingdom, just to avoid having to cut the share price. In other words, the prince was transferring 100% private assets to a public company where he owns only 95%, free of charge, in order to improve reporting and, possibly, market performance. What did Ernst & Young say in 2011? Nothing. They were replaced by Pricewaterhousecoopers at the annual meeting in March this year.

Sunbar told Forbes that no shares have been sold since 2008, but we do not know what shares were sold (if any) between July 2007 and the end of 2008. In January 2012, Kingdom issued a press release claiming that it had invested $300 million into Twitter, half from Kingdom Holding and half from the prince's personal funds. Sunbar confirmed that stakes in Apple, eBay, PepsiCo, Priceline, Procter & Gamble and some other companies have not changed. But as an investor in Kingdom, you won't know that from the annual report. A note to the 2012 financial statements lists $2.1 billion in unaudited private assets and writes one sentence: "The Equity segment's activities are concentrated in the US and the Middle East." This minimum level of disclosure “certainly wouldn’t pass common sense in the US,” says Jack Sisilsky, publisher of The Analyst’s Observer mailing list.

Sanbar's answer? "We are not a mutual fund, and there is no provision that we must disclose to anyone the composition of our portfolio."

Although the value of public companies is usually determined by the market, given Kingdom's opaqueness, low number of shares in circulation and questionable trading practices, Forbes decided to focus on real assets. We assessed returns on stakes in hotel management companies Four Seasons, Movenpick and Fairmont Raffles and, together with an investment banker specializing in the hospitality industry, applied a high multiple for public companies. We also calculated the net worth of shares in more than 15 Kingdom-owned hotels.

Including other holdings we were able to identify, including real estate in Saudi Arabia and a portfolio of stocks in the US and the Middle East, we value the Prince's stake in Kingdom Holding at $10.6 billion, or $9.3 billion less than the market share. grade.

Even if crediting the prince for most of his reported $9.7 billion assets outside of Saudi Arabia: Sanbar listed properties in Saudi Arabia estimated to be worth $4.6 billion, stakes in Arab media companies worth $1.1 billion (Forbes discounted this figure because the prince is using the current net worth of future earnings, and we are the current profit multiple) and another $3.5 billion in investments in public and private companies around the world - and even if you take into account the numerous aircraft, yachts, cars and jewelry, Forbes final estimate does not exceed $20 billion. Still the richest man in the Arab world. Still $2 billion more than last year. But $9.6 billion less than the prince himself claims. And since Forbes prides itself on its conservative valuation approach, in this case, we believe that in the event of a sale of assets, revenue would be even less.

Prince's Orders

A week before Forbes finalized the calculations, the prince gave his chief financial officer direct instructions that his place on the Forbes 2013 list be in line with his desires: more precisely, that his fortune be estimated at $ 29.6 billion, which will return him in the top ten of the ranking - the place he so dreamed of. Our source, who is not an employee of the company and is well acquainted with the way of thinking and style of speech of the prince, claims that the direct order to Sanbaru was worded as a requirement to "go to extreme measures."

This was followed by four detailed letters from Sunbar criticizing our journalists and our methodology for being biased towards the Prince. “Why does Forbes apply different standards to different billionaires, is it because of our origins?” Sanbar asked.

In one of the emails, Sunbar insisted that the value of Kingdom's holdings had skyrocketed, but did not elaborate. He did, however, mention that Kingdom had reduced unrealized portfolio losses by nearly $1 billion since 2008. In another letter, he says that the Saudi Securities Market Commission spent 12 months analyzing the Kingdom's 2007 IPO. “It harms the establishment of Saudi-American relations. Forbes' actions are offensive to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and incompatible with the pursuit of progress."

Finally, Sunbar insisted that al-Waleed's name be removed from the list of billionaires if Forbes did not raise his fortune. As Forbes asked more and more specific questions in the course of checking the factual basis of this article, the prince unilaterally announced through his office the day before publication that he was going to "sever ties" with Forbes' list of billionaires. "Prince al-Waleed made this decision because he felt he could no longer participate in a process that is based on distorted data and seems to be aimed at discrediting investors and institutions in the Middle East."

“Over the years, we have been willing to work with the Forbes team and repeatedly point out flaws in the methodology that needed to be corrected,” Sanbar said in a statement. “However, after several years of our attempts to correct the errors, we came to the conclusion that Forbes was not going to improve the accuracy of their assessment of our holdings, and decided to move on.”

And how did the prince inform us of his decision? With a press release.

Translation by Natalia Balabantseva

Editorial. In 2013, Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal filed a lawsuit against Forbes magazine, accusing the publication of downplaying his fortune and taking only 29th place in the Forbes rating with $ 20 billion. The prince himself estimated his fortune at $ 29.6 billion, with which he would be in the top ten richest people in the world. In 2015, both sides said that the legal conflict had been settled "on mutually acceptable terms". In the global ranking of billionaires in 2017, the prince ranked 45th.

Childhood

Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud was born on March 7, 1955 into a royal family, the rank, rank or occupation of each member of which is truly impressive.

His father, Prince Talal ibn Ab-del Aziz, was the Minister of Finance; in the 60s he opposed the current government of King Faisal as part of the liberal movement. His grandfather - Riad As-Solh famous political figure, former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Al-Walid's uncle Salman is the reigning king of Saudi Arabia, and his maternal cousins ​​are the princes of Morocco - Moulay Hisham Angle and Moulay Ismail.

The kid was not yet four when his parents decided to divorce. Prince Al-Walid stayed with his mother, Princess Monica, and soon they moved to Beirut, where the guy spent his childhood.

Education

As befits children in royal families, Al-Waleed received a prestigious education. He went to study in America, where Menlo College in San Francisco was chosen for training. Here he received a bachelor's degree, after which he went to Syracuse University in New York. Here he studied with world-famous teachers in the social sciences.

Life in America was to the taste of the young prince - here he quickly got used to it, fell in love with business style, fast food and Coca-Cola. It seemed pointless for a young, active and educated young man to return to his homeland.

The beginning of a business career and its successful continuation

Prince Al-Walid began his commercial activities in 1979. Taking out a loan of $350,000, he began providing intermediary services to foreign firms that planned to cooperate with Saudi Arabia. Thanks to the close relationship of the prince with quite influential people in the country, his debut in the business world turned out to be quite successful. In addition to mediation, Al-Walid was engaged in the purchase and resale of land. In 1980, Al-Waleed bin Talal founded the company "Kingdom".

One of the prince's most famous and successful investments was Citibank. In the 1990s, Al-Waleed acquired a significant stake in Citibank, which at that time was in a very difficult financial situation. By investing virtually all of his investments in Citibank, he saved it from total collapse. In the future, more than half of Al-Walid's fortune is precisely this company, which he once saved from falling.

The next successful acquisition for the prince was a block of preferred shares of Citigroup. Having bought the company's shares for next to nothing, Al-Walid did not fail - in early 1994, the shares literally soared in price, which significantly increased Al-Walid's capital.

The prince has been seen collaborating with Bill Gates and Microsoft, and is also known for his lavish investments in media companies.

"Arabian Warren Buffett"

Prince Alwaleed is often compared to another successful businessman, Warren Buffett, in reference to his impressive investment acumen. However, these two investors do not have much in common: Al-Waleed, if you look at it, has very few high-profile investments, and the most successful of them is still Citigroup. Buffett is famous for dozens of big deals.

These two businessmen are very different in their attitude to luxury. Warren Buffett lives in a house worth just over $30,000, while the prince owns a luxurious palace valued at over $100 million. Also, Al-Walid, like most Eastern billionaires, has a soft spot for expensive cars, private jets and luxury yachts. In 2012, the prince once again reminded of his love for luxury by purchasing the only instance of an elite aircraft to date. Al-Walid now owns a private Airbus-380 aircraft.

Forbes scandal

The annual rating published by Forbes magazine in 2013, as usual, consisted of people whose fortune has long been estimated in the billions. An Arabian businessman also appeared on the list. But if, according to the editors of the publication, the prince's assets amounted to 20 billion (he took 26th place in a hundred), then he himself announced a figure of $ 29 billion. A difference of almost ten billion could significantly affect his place in the rankings.

It is reported that Prince Al-Waleed sent a letter to the CEO of Forbes, in which he asked in an uncompromising manner that his name no longer appear in the publication's rankings. Not this year, or any other. Then he openly stated that he did not trust the publication, and the methods of assessing the state used by journalists are absolutely wrong and incorrect.

Forbes management did not tolerate such tricks that undermine the authority of the publication. Literally a few days later, a detailed article about Al-Walid was published on the official website of the magazine, in which a different point of view on the current situation was stated. According to the publication, the prince is too fixated on his own image, so long before the publication of the list, Al-Walid's PR managers demanded that the prince's fortune be assessed based on the data of his personal lawyers.

Charity

In 2015, the news spread around the world that the Prince of Saudi Arabia, Al-Walid, who was in his seventies, donated almost all of his life fortune to charity. According to preliminary estimates, about 32 billion were written off from the accounts of the billionaire. He admitted that Bill Gates, who also generously “shares” his personal fortune with his brainchild, the Gates Foundation, became an example for him. “This is my duty to humanity,” the prince said, mentioning that charity is an inalienable honor of his faith, Islam.

Donated funds will be used to build hospitals, schools, orphanages, to help countries affected by natural disasters, to help single mothers and other needy groups of people.

Personal life

Not much is known about the personal life of Prince Al-Walid: he was married three times, but is currently not married. From the first wife named Delal, the prince has a son and a daughter. His next chosen one was Iman al-Sudairi, in this marriage Al-Walid did not have children. The third wife was chosen by Amir Al-Tawil - a very outstanding personality, although not of royal blood. Amira became the first princess in Saudi Arabia to refuse to wear the traditional dress of Saudi women - the abaya. The princess actively supports organizations and projects fighting for women's rights around the world.

Unfortunately, in the winter of 2014, the marriage of Princess Amira and Prince Al-Walid was annulled. Rumor has it that the spouses were imprisoned marriage contract, according to which Princess Amira could not have children. Most likely, this was the main reason for the divorce.

Al-Waleed bin Talal, Photo: Hamad I Mohammed / Reuters

Saudi prince. The richest man in the East of the XX century. In 2012, he took 8th (according to other sources, 5th) place in the list of the richest businessmen on the planet. According to Bill Gates, he is the most successful entrepreneur in the world.

The loud names of the stars of American and European business somewhat obscure the names of natives of other continents, although many of them are far from the last place in the business world of the planet. Our reader, as well as the foreign one, is little familiar, for example, with “business sharks” from the Middle East. However, they are of great interest. Among them, one of the first places belongs to the Saudi prince Al Walid - one of the world's largest investors and the nephew of the current King of Saudi Arabia Fahd.

Despite being dubbed the "prince of glasnost" by the newspapers, little is known about him. Along with other Middle Eastern multi-billionaires, he does not seek to flaunt his private life and is not prone to self-promotion. Biography of Al Waleed, personality traits and business skill are known only in the most general terms.

The full name of the prince is Al Waleed ibn Talal ibn Ab-del Aziz Al Saud. His grandfather was the founder of the country, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, and his father was Prince Talal ibn Abdulaziz, the Minister of Finance. In the 60s. he led a group of so-called "liberal princes" who opposed the policies of the then-reigning King Faisal, and fell into disgrace.

Al Waleed's mother, Princess Mona is the daughter of Lebanese Prime Minister Riad Solha. When his parents divorced, the boy, who was having a hard time with this break, stayed with his mother and was brought up in Lebanon, the most democratic and Europeanized of the Middle Eastern countries. This undoubtedly had an impact on the formation of his personality. However, the day before civil war in Lebanon 1975-1990 Al Waleed got carried away national idea and almost became a supporter of Yasser Arafat. But then my father intervened. He urgently summoned his son to Riyadh and placed him in military academy named after King Abdulaziz.

The young man did not like this choice. However strict laws Orthodox Muslims demanded from him complete submission to the will of his father. Many years later, he realized that Talal was right. The academy saved the prince from involvement in terrorism and made him a citizen of the world in the highest sense of this meaning. In addition, studying there helped him acquire the skills of self-discipline that are essential for every businessman.

After graduating from the academy, Al Walid, as a representative of a disgraced family, could not count on a high post in the state apparatus or in the political field. Pride did not allow agreeing to secondary roles, so the young man chose to leave his native place and went overseas. He spent several years at California's Merlo College and Syracuse University, where he received a bachelor's degree in business administration and then a master's degree in political science and economics. However scientific career did not become the prince's main life stimulus.

In 1979, Al Walid returned to his homeland, shaken by the "land fever". With only $15,000 donated by his father, he organized the Kingdom company and engaged in land speculation, which brought in $2 million in net income.

After the death of his father, the young man inherited a house that was mortgaged for $1.5 million. In 1986, after pooling funds, Al Waleed, following American patterns, unexpectedly bought the Saudi Commercial Bank. Further manipulation of securities and shares caused a sensation in Saudi Arabia. The prince was predicted bankruptcy. However, two years later, the second-rate bank made a profit, and soon swallowed up the Saudi Cairo Bank, which had previously surpassed it many times in terms of turnover.

Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is perhaps the most famous among the more than two thousand Saudi princes. The prince stated that he started the business with 30 thousand dollars, which his father gave him. Al-Walid, in his own words, also had only a house and a loan of 300 thousand dollars.

The investor, however, does not mention whether he was helped directly The Royal Family. Apparently, something fell to the heir, because in 1991 he bought a stake in Citicorp (the current Citigroup) for $ 800 million. This package became the main asset of al-Walid. According to Bloomberg, the prince bought shares at $2.98 apiece. By 2007, the securities had risen in price to $42, and the value of al-Walid's stake exceeded ten billion dollars.

In 2007, the prince decided to organize an IPO (initial public offering) of his Kingdom Holding company. Only five percent of the shares were sold to investors. At the same time, there were no motives for bringing the company to the exchange at all: al-Walid did not need any additional funds or an increase in the liquidity of capital. Nor did he need to please partners who could sell their shares as part of an IPO.

The prince has been nicknamed the "Arabian Warren Buffett", a nod to his investment acumen. However, these two investors have little in common: al-Waleed has, in fact, only one high-profile investment in securities - an investment in Citicorp, while Buffett is known for several successful deals. They differ greatly in their attitude to luxury. For example, Buffett still lives in a house for 31.5 thousand dollars, while the prince castle for 100 million. Al Waleed is also known for his passion for luxury cars, yachts and aircraft.

The only thing the two investors have in common is, perhaps, the desire for transparency. True, Buffett declares all income from personal convictions (he is considered one of the most honest businessmen) and because the law requires it, but al-Walid has slightly different motives.

Transparency is nothing, image is everything

Image - perhaps the most important thing for al-Walid after money. Forbes wrote about this in a separate article, which became a kind of response to the claims of an Arab businessman.

So Al Walid became the pioneer of modern banking in Arabia. The next, and no less successful stage was the purchase of Arabian real estate. Currently, the cost of buildings owned by Al Walid, including a three-hundred-meter skyscraper in the center of the Arabian capital, which houses the King Faisal Charitable Foundation, is more than $53 million.

And yet, the basis of the initial capital of the prince was not speculation in land and not the manipulation of securities. By his own admission, the biggest income came from the so-called “commissions” received from transactions, which are very common in the Middle East. Here, no company, whether local or foreign, can win contracts without the help of princes or other high-ranking persons, and this is not considered reprehensible. The amount of such bribes-commissions is usually 30% of the contract value. This source of income, despite the huge profits from enterprises, the prince continues to use now. For example, in 2000, commissions amounted to $40 million out of a total income of $500 million. And all this money, according to Al Waleed, he worked honestly and in excess.

But back to the start entrepreneurial activity Al Walida. Successes in the Middle East seemed to him not enough. At the age of thirty-four, with Desert Storm raging across the region, the prince made his debut in the global investment market. For $590 million, he bought a 9.9% stake in Citicorp, America's largest bank, which was in serious trouble. It became a sensation. Experienced analysts shrugged their shoulders, viewed the prince's actions as a gamble and considered them the whim of a too rich man. However, after 7 years, the value of the block of shares he bought increased 12 times, and Forbes magazine, echoed by Bill Gates, ranked Al Walid among the most successful businessmen in the world. Approximately the same thing was repeated over the following years: Al Waleed was predicted a financial collapse, nevertheless, all his undertakings invariably brought huge dividends.

In the summer of 1994, Al Waleed's name was back on the front pages of business news. He invested $350 million in shares of the Euro-Disney amusement park near Paris, which is in danger of bankruptcy. The prince suggested that the fall in the shares of this company is due to a temporary economic downturn in Europe. As a result, he became the owner of 24.8% of the shares, which in a year were worth $600 million on the market.

The scope of the prince's activities is not limited to playing on the stock exchange. Together with Michael Jackson, he organized a joint corporation "Kingdom of Entertainment". In the second half of the 90s. actively involved in the hotel business, which had long been of interest to him, acting as a major shareholder in the project of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. Since then, Al Waleed has consistently made solid contributions to this area. As a result, the World Holding of Luxury Hotels was created, the capital of which is estimated at $1 billion. Today, the prince owns 50% of the shares of the Fairmont group, 30% of the Swiss hotel chain Movenpick, 25% of the Four Sizes hotel chain. The Prince is the owner of more than twenty luxury hotels in different countries of Europe and America. Among them are the famous hotels "George V" in Paris, "Inn on the Park" in London and "Plaza" in New York.

In the spring of 2000, when Wall Street experienced a record drop in the main stock indicators, and over investors high technology the threat of huge financial losses looming from Saudi Arabia, the prince was not afraid. The experienced stock trader was sure that the situation would improve and the shares would crawl up again. A month later, he had already invested a billion dollars in 15 worldwide famous companies, operating in the field of new technologies and communications, and at the same time acquired shares in the most popular Internet providers, which were on the verge of bankruptcy. It is known that Al Waleed, along with Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, took part in the Teledesic megaproject, which provides access to the Internet from anywhere in the world.

Currently, his investments have reached $17 billion. Rumor has it that in the future, the prince intends to rush to Africa, seeing profitable investment opportunities there.

To the question of how much Al Walid "costs" now, no one can answer exactly. Usually they give figures from 20 to 25 billion dollars. His vast empire includes Saudi and foreign banks, television channels and publishing houses, enterprises engaged in construction, hotel, tourism business, agriculture, retail, production of automobiles and industrial equipment, production of electronic equipment, computers and computer programs.

This largest of modern businessmen, despite a certain Europeanization, is very religious. On the own funds he built a magnificent mosque in Riyadh. His wives never took pictures, as this is not allowed by religion. Observing the laws of Islam, Al Walid does not drink, does not smoke, does not buy shares of companies that produce tobacco and alcohol products, does not play roulette.

But in a number of cases, when business demands it, Al Walid prefers to take a liberal approach to the problems of Islam. Without playing himself, the prince makes huge profits from gambling. True, he spends this money emphatically on charity. Contrary to the opinion of Muslim jurists, Al Walid does not consider it sinful to provide money at interest (any of his banks does this).

Not alien to Al Waleed and some of the features inherent in his Western fellow billionaires. Lately, he has clearly been looking to impress the world. His intention to build a skyscraper 300 meters high with the top in the form of an eye of a needle is widely known. The latter, apparently, was conceived only in order to fly through it on a jet plane. And Al Walid wants to do it himself.

The prince categorically refuses to interfere in politics. Indeed, there are many Jews among his partners, which is not typical for a Muslim. At the same time, it is known that the prince donated $27 million to the needs of the Palestinians fighting against the occupation of the lands occupied by Israel. He did not stand aside from the assessment of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, making it clear that he considers America, which supports Israel, to be guilty of the causes of this tragedy. He said, "The US government needs to rethink its Middle East policy and take a more balanced stance towards the Palestinians." At the same time, Al Waleed decided to allocate $10 million in donations to people affected by the attack. Outraged New York Mayor Rudolph Juliani dismissed the money, dismissing the prince's statement as "absolutely irresponsible," "dangerous," and "unfriendly to American politics." In response, the prince reaffirmed his position, stating that "the US must understand the causes and roots of terrorism and its connection to the Palestinian problem." Then he handed the New York city hall a check for $10 million and said he would not give another cent if he was refused again. According to a number of Western commentators, this whole story looks like blackmail on the part of a Saudi multimillionaire: after all, he is one of the largest investors in the US economy.

Al Walid created his empire in a very short time - in just 20 years. In business circles, this is explained by his propensity for risk, but justified risk. He buys shares of the world's leading corporations at a time when they are experiencing difficulties. At the same time, he acts very decisively, but always knows where and when to strike.

It is clear to all that Al Waleed has enormous personal wealth. As is usual in the business world, when asked about the origins of a huge fortune, he answers in full accordance with the stereotypical American legend: "I achieved everything myself, hard work and I'm proud of it." However, rumors circulate in the business world that the entire royal family is behind the prince, who do not want to advertise their involvement in business ventures. This, however, remains unproven. Al Walid himself considers belonging to the Saudi dynasty a blessing of Allah, since it is she who is the guardian of the two main shrines of Islam - Mecca, where the sacred stone of the Kaaba is kept, and Medina, where the grave of the prophet Mohammed is located.

More than anything, the prince values ​​reliable information. In its skillful use is one of the main and real secrets of his success. For information, Al Waleed is not stingy. His team consists of about 400 people, for the maintenance of which the prince spends $ 1 million a month. These professionals of the highest class accompany him always and everywhere, even during trips, creating a whole caravan of special vehicles - a very impressive sight.

The prince himself explains the reasons for his success very simply. In an interview with the correspondent of the French magazine Parimatch, Elisabeth Chavelet, he said: “I work a lot when necessary - for 15-20 hours in a row ... And one more thing: if you are successful in business, then new things will come to you. I am religious and this is a valuable help for me. If thanks to Allah you prosper, then you should always remain humble, help the poor, otherwise Allah will punish you.”

Al Walid's high performance is confirmed by the daily routine. Every day he gets up at 10 o'clock in the morning, then does a fifteen-minute exercise, has breakfast. From 11:00 to 16:00 he works in the office, from 16:00 to 17:00 - lunch and a little rest. From 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. he works in the office again. The next three hours are devoted to physical exercises, jogging and swimming in the pool, lunch and prayer. The prince goes to bed at 5 o'clock in the morning. He despises sleep, considering these hours lost for business.

This man, more like a robot, is actually never distracted by anything not related to work or maintenance. No wonder he even considers business and only business to be his hobby.

The prince eats little and does not abuse delicacies. His self-characteristic is known: “I am a calorie counter”, meaning the rejection of everything that exceeds a certain norm that he set for himself.

Personal life-Al Walida, according to the press, did not work out. He was married twice and unsuccessfully both times. Marriages ended in divorce. Apparently, alluding to the conviction of Europeans that every wealthy Muslim should have a huge harem, the prince answers journalists' questions that he has 100 wives and that their portraits adorn the walls of his office. However, these "portraits" show the emblems of companies owned by the prince.

Al Walid lives alone, but adores his children - nineteen-year-old Khaled and fifteen-year-old Reem. For them, he built a palace of 317 rooms, collected a collection of three hundred cars. Rome bought a luxurious blue Rolls-Royce especially for him.

The prince-businessman spends his leisure time on the French Riviera or in his own villa near the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, in the company of Bedouins. He and his friends drink the strongest Arabic coffee and are rumored to be talking about eternity. But this does not prevent the prince from plunging back into the fussy and tough world of business, very far from philosophy and thoughts about the divine destiny of man, after a short time.

In 2012, Prince bought the plane for $485 million. This is an exclusive version of the Airbus-380 aircraft, nicknamed the "Flying Palace" for its luxury.

One of the richest people in the world, Saudi prince and businessman Al-Waleed bin Talal will receive the liner in the very near future.

The three-story liner contains conference and banquet halls, five-room royal apartments, and a prayer room equipped with virtual prayer rugs that automatically orient themselves in the direction of Mecca. A special elevator will take the owner to the lower floor, where the Rolls-Royce garage is located.

One of the richest people in the world, Saudi prince and businessman Al-Waleed bin Talal will soon receive an exclusive version of the Airbus-380 aircraft he ordered for $485 million. The winged car was nicknamed the "Flying Palace" for its luxury.

The three-story airliner houses conference and banquet halls, five-room royal suites, and a prayer room. It is equipped with virtual prayer mats that automatically orient themselves in the direction of Mecca.

The interior of one of al-Waleed's planes Photo: Waseem Obaidi / Getty Images

A special elevator will take the owner of the aircraft to the lower floor. There is a garage for a Rolls-Royce car, RIA Novosti reports.

So far, the "Flying Palace" exists in a single copy.

However, Airbus hopes that Prince bin Talal's acquisition of the Palace will be a good advertisement for this luxury aircraft, and orders for it will not be long in coming.

The interior of one of al-Waleed's planes, Photo: Waseem Obaidi / Getty Images

He owns a collection of 200 cars that are painted in all the colors of the rainbow and are operated on a certain day of the week. By the way, the car garage is shaped like an ancient Egyptian pyramid.

He also owns the world's largest truck, which has four bedrooms in the cab. Another giant car is a motor home, it has the shape of a globe, and its dimensions are exactly a millionth of the size of the planet Earth.

Inside the largest private jet in the world, there was room for a concert hall, a Turkish bath, and even a beloved Rolls Royce. Imagine the perfect private jet—no lines, a big reclining chair, maybe a glass of chilled champagne. Trite?

Add four-poster beds, a four-person Turkish bath, and Rolls-Royce parking. And all this without mentioning the meeting room with projection screens and the concert hall on board.
This $500 million A380 was expected to be the world's largest private jet by the time it was completed.

The owner of the public is unknown, but it is said that he loves to fly. One of the possible owners is the Saudi prince al-Walid bin Talal, the owner of the Savoy hotel chain. The design is developed by the well-known Design-Q agency. In a space typically accommodating 600 passengers, the owner and his guests will enjoy five-star service throughout their journey. A personal car will naturally be parked in the highest category - right on the plane.

The elevator from the plane descends directly to the asphalt - ladders are a thing of the past. The red carpet is backed by a plethora of lights – “to give the impression of ascending Olympus,” says Design-Q co-founder Harry Doy.

The entire ground floor of the A380 has been turned into a relaxation area, including a marble hammam. True, a stone two millimeters thick was used to reduce weight. Next door is the “Positivity Room” – as it was called due to the fact that the walls and floor here turned into a giant screen – a real royal view. Guests can stand on a makeshift "flying carpet" and watch the landscape passing by, moreover, they can even feel a light breeze created artificially for greater effect.

If work is truly unavoidable, a meeting room is at hand, with iTouch screens and online stock quotes projected on tables. For conference calls a business partner on the ground can join the meeting via videoconference at any time.

A set of royal needs - a truly imperial five:
- entertainment system,
- a prayer room with a projection of Mecca in the middle,
- shuttle lift
- a concert hall with a piano for 10 seats,
- as well as a garage.

There is also a small hotel inside - 20 first-class beds for additional guests. According to the designers, they will be stylized under the graceful curves and whirlpools of Arabic writing. The creators of this air palace themselves say: “We are not trying to put a hotel in the air, everything is created in accordance with the needs of the flight, and has characteristic features that fit into the concept of air travel. The Turkish bath here is especially interesting - the steam room with marble and subdued lighting helps to relax perfectly”

The richest people in the world often delight themselves with pleasant "trifles". Not so long ago, Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan comes from the ruling dynasty of Abu Dhabi immortalized his name in an unusual way. He wrote it in kilometer letters, which can be seen even from space, on an island in Persian Gulf five kilometers from Abu Dhabi.

There is another famous Arab billionaire known to the world as the Rainbow Sheik. To him owns a collection of 200 cars that are painted in all the colors of the rainbow and run on a specific day of the week. By the way, the car garage is shaped like an ancient Egyptian pyramid. He also owns the world's largest truck, which has four bedrooms in the cab. Another giant car is a motor home, it has the shape of a globe, and its dimensions are exactly a millionth of the size of the planet Earth.

Look here in more detail - Sheikh and

Let's return now again to our prince. Back in 2011, it became known that Kingdom Holding, owned by the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, had signed a contract for the construction of the Kingdom Tower skyscraper in Saudi Arabia, the height of which would exceed 1000 meters.

The tallest skyscraper in the world - Kingdom Tower will rise more than 1 km. over the city of Jeddah, off the coast of the Red Sea. The tower will include hotels, residential apartments, offices and the world's highest observation deck. Adrian Smith was appointed the chief architect of the project, he also designed the Burj Khalifa, as well as a number of other skyscrapers in the USA, China and the UAE (see his website). The sum of the prisoner Kingdom Holding The contract is valued at $1.2 billion. Kingdom Tower will become the central and first stage of the construction of the district kingdom city, in the construction of which the Saudi prince is ready to invest a total of $ 20 billion.

Azzam

Length (m) 180

Speed ​​in knots 30

Number of guests 22

The launch of the 180-meter boat took place in April 2013, now it is the largest yacht in the world, Roman Abramovich's Eclipse has lost its crown. A huge yacht capable of speeds of 30 knots was built at the German shipyard Lurssen in record time - in just three years. Azzam cost the owner (rumored to be Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal) more than $600 million.

In early March 2013, Forbes published its annual ranking of the richest people on the planet. Often, it is from this list that businessmen find out how much their assets cost in total. And learn about it not only the rich themselves, but the whole world. Not all billionaires like this alignment - many would prefer not to attract too much attention. “Money loves silence,” businessmen often say, but one of the richest men on the planet, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, clearly disagrees. The Arab investor, ranked 26th in the 2013 Forbes ranking, claims that the magazine has underestimated his fortune by a third, to $20 billion.

Former al-Waleed employees told Forbes that Kingdom Holding's IPO was also for image purposes. “It's great to take the company public. They write a lot about you in the press, ”one of his former employees explained the investor’s motives. The Forbes rating is for the prince (however, as well as for the whole world) the main measure of success. Al-Waleed regularly collaborated with the magazine, providing every opportunity to evaluate his assets.

In 2006, Forbes estimated that al-Waleed's fortune had dropped by $7 billion due to the collapse of Kingdom Holding shares. Then the prince called the editor Kerry Dolan (Kerry Dolan) and "almost in tears" asked her to check the value of his assets again, apparently hoping for a mistake and a higher place in the rankings.

This year, everything happened according to a similar scenario: the prince tried with all his might to prove that his condition should be assessed according to his own data. Meanwhile, the editors of the magazine discovered one curious pattern: the shares of Kingdom Holding - the prince's key asset - rose in price for several years in a row 2.5 months before the publication of the rating of billionaires. Given the closeness of the Saudi stock market and a small number of shares in free float (five percent), the investor could easily manipulate quotes, overestimating his fortune. This information was confirmed to the publication by unnamed sources; Ernst & Young, an auditing company, also drew attention to the discrepancy between the real value of assets and market quotes.

As a result, Forbes decided to focus on valuing al-Waleed's underlying assets - shares in Four Seasons, Movenpick, Fairmont Raffles and other shares, as well as hotels and other real estate. Calculations showed that Kingdom Holding is worth 10.6 billion dollars, that is, almost two times less than the capitalization calculated from market quotes. To this amount was added the value of assets not included in Kingdom Holding, as well as cars, aircraft, yachts and other luxury goods. Ultimately, the publication decided that al-Walid's fortune did not exceed $ 20 billion, and awarded him an honorable 26th place in the ranking.

Even a week before Forbes completed its calculations, the prince sent his financial director to the editorial office with instructions to achieve the “correct” assessment of the state - $ 29.6 billion by all means. As a result, the editors decided to stop at their own calculations, which only changed the position of al-Walid in the ranking - even with 26th place, he remained the richest Arab.

In response, al-Waleed accused Forbes of being ethnically biased and demanded that he be removed from the rankings. The prince said in a press release that the publication's team uses the wrong methods to calculate the value of assets and makes serious mistakes. In this regard, he decided to break all ties with Forbes.

The publication notes that none of the billionaires have made so much effort to inflate their fortune. The vanity of al-Walid played a cruel joke on him - if earlier the desire of a businessman for ostentatious luxury was perceived as the norm, given his royal origin, now the prince clearly stands out even against the background of his noble compatriots.
or for example . And now not about politics: and more The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

In mid-April 2004, one of the brightest and most strong players- Arab field commander. A significant part of his life passed in the shadow of another famous Arab commander -. And even now, more than two years after the "Black Arab" went to another world, the identity of his deputy, as well as the circumstances of his death, are still shrouded in mystery. We can only lift the veil of this mystery to a small extent, because any information about this character is unlikely to be complete and reliable.

Abu al-Walid's real name was Abd al-Aziz al-Ghamidi. He was born in 1967 in the Saudi province of Baljurashi to a real estate, timber and paint merchant, Said bin Ali al-Ghamidi. Since Abd al-Aziz was the second of the eleven sons of Said bin Ali, he could not count on any significant part of his father's inheritance. Perhaps that is why he chose a life full of turbulent adventures as an ideological mercenary, fighting equally for money and for religious beliefs.

The tribal origin of Abd-al-Aziz also contributed to this. The fact is that al-Ghamidi is an old Saudi surname, descended from the Hamid tribe and has always been distinguished by significant religious zeal. Individual members of this family managed to achieve high positions in the Saudi hierarchy. So, until recently, the Saudi consul in Moscow was Abdullah al-Ghamidi. However, Abd-al-Aziz, the son of a merchant, hardly hoped to become a consul and from the very beginning he could rely only on his own energy. The other two "offsprings" were counting on the same thing. noble family”, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Khaznawi al-Ghamidi and Said al-Ghamidi, who on September 11, 2001, along with two other terrorists, hijacked a Boeing 757 that crashed in Pennsylvania - now believed to be the result of a fight between passengers and air pirates.

In general, the family ties of Abu al-Walid are quite confusing. On the one hand, his parents' family lives and lives in Saudi Arabia. In Chechnya, Abu al-Walid married a Chechen woman, who bore him two sons, Omar and Saleh. On the other hand, for some reason there are persistent rumors among Chechen fighters that Abu al-Walid was a cousin of the Jordanian Khattab. But, one way or another, al-Walid really for most of his combat biography was, as it were, the “younger brother” of the “Black Arab”, working for him “on the hook” and considering himself his governor.

The young Abu al-Walid took his first steps as a fighter in Afghanistan, fighting there with Khattab against the Soviet army. Later, after the establishment of the Taliban regime, he repeatedly visited Afghanistan, took additional training courses there and was considered one of the first-class explosives specialists.

After Afghanistan, Abu al-Walid was seen in Yugoslavia, where he fought on the side of the Bosnian Muslims. His participation in the first Chechen campaign is questionable: at that time he comprehended the intricacies of mine-explosive business in the camp of the Afghan Taliban. His first reliable appearance in Chechnya can be attributed to 1997: he made his way to the territory of the rebellious republic from Afghanistan through Tajikistan. Moreover, he almost immediately became a confidant of Khattab and his right hand, responsible for the supply and monetary allowance of the militants. True, at first he occupied relatively modest positions in the gangster hierarchy: for example, according to documents captured in Grozny in February 2000, Abu al-Walid was listed as a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of a battalion of the Khattab Islamic Regiment, which consisted mainly of Arab veterans - mercenaries.

During the existence of Maskhadov's "Ichkeria", the republic was in the field of Osama bin Laden's closest attention. He pinned great hopes on independent Chechnya, intending to turn it into a base of forces international terrorism, from which it would be convenient to launch an offensive against Dagestan in order to turn the Caucasus into a "Wahhabi fortress" and one of the strongholds of the future "caliphate". Of all those of Chechen origin, only the one who was killed on February 28 of this year could boast of personal contacts with terrorist No. 1. However, the main vertical of power in Wahhabi Chechnya was built exclusively from Arabs.

Four Arab "international" terrorists were responsible for Chechnya before Osama bin Laden: Khattab, Abu Jafar, Abu Umar and Abu al-Walid. The first three, as is known, were eliminated during the second Chechen campaign. And only now the Chechen militants have lost al-Walid, for the elimination of which the Russian authorities once announced a reward of 100 thousand dollars.

Together with Khattab, Abu al-Walid took an active part in the attack on Dagestan, hoping to turn this republic, like Chechnya, into a "Sharia state." But this time the militants' affairs were far from being as successful as in the first Chechen war. And when they were driven back to Chechnya and the second Chechen campaign began, things went frankly badly for the Arab mercenaries.

Luck also left al-Walid. In March 2000, a group led by Achimez Gochiyaev, trained by al-Walid to carry out terrorist acts in Russia, failed and was neutralized. Of all the members of the gang, only Gochiyaev managed to escape. And in the same month, a relative of al-Walid, Yaqub al-Ghamidi, was killed.

Before Khattab had at his disposal about a thousand experienced Arab militants, many of whom began to fight with him in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Hiding behind the Chechens and Dagestani Wahhabis, Khattab was able to save most of his forces and withdraw them to Chechnya. In the fall of 1999, hard times came for them. Despite the fact that they could still count on the support of the population, especially in the southern regions of Chechnya, among the mass of ordinary Chechens, there was a growing rejection of the order that Khattab, Abu al-Walid and other Arab field commanders carried with them.

However, Khattab still had two main trump cards in his hands - firstly, his “Islamic Regiment”, and, secondly (and more importantly), control over the funds flowing into Chechnya on behalf of various extremist and terrorist organizations, primarily from "Muslim Brotherhood".

Along with the first defeats, strife began among the Chechen and Arab commanders over the distribution of these funds. The Chechens (and some of the foreign "sponsors") rightly accused the Arabs of embezzling a large part of the material aid. Gradually, the financial flow to Chechnya began to dry up - most of the funds, as the investigation of the Muslim Brotherhood showed, were stolen by Khattab and his inner circle, like Abu Umar or Abu Sayyah. During the war, Khattab, in collusion with some functionaries of the Muslim Brotherhood, was able to embezzle several tens of millions of dollars.

Abu al-Walid, although he was the right hand of Khattab, was not directly and openly involved in this theft. Therefore, they began to predict him for the post of plenipotentiary representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in Chechnya, that is, for the place of Khattab. The latter, of course, could not stand and watch how he was wiped away from big money and from sole power over the militants.

Of all the commanders, Khattab really trusted very few people. He has always been his confidant, but this can be explained more by the coincidence of the interests of the two leaders than by sincere trust between them. At the same time, Khattab always positioned Basayev for the role of the formal head of the militants, preferring to be " gray cardinal”and manage from behind Basayev’s back. For example, as soon as in 2001 the commander Ramzan Akhmadov began to be nominated for the role of the leader of the Wahhabis on his "military merits", Khattab immediately ordered to eliminate him, which was carried out by the Arab Yakub from the Akhmadov detachment.

Now it can be considered proven that in the autumn of 2001 a "black cat ran" between two Arab commanders. Abu al-Walid, as the "chief quartermaster", began an investigation into the disappearance of money intended for the militants, and, having received no direct evidence, nevertheless came to the conclusion that Khattab was behind this. Since the “public opinion” of the militants was on the side of al-Walid, who presented himself as something like a selfless fighter for the faith, Khattab was in a dangerous position. But he began to think about the possibility of leaving Chechnya long before that.

During the summer and fall of 2001, Khattab was able to eliminate almost all of his associates involved in his machinations. Moreover, this was done most often by the hands of the Russian military, since Khattab sent these field commanders on difficult and dangerous missions. So Abu Darr, Abu Umar and Abu Yakub were destroyed, and later Abu Sayyah.

Meanwhile, behind Khattab's back, Abu al-Walid began to weave a conspiracy to remove his boss. He was able to directly contact Muslim Brotherhood functionaries such as Abu Rabia, and began to try to control the distribution of funds himself. Of course, Khattab could not forgive such a thing.

Back in September 2001, he accused Abu al-Walid of plotting something against him and threatened to kill him. During the winter of 2001-2002, Khattab developed an operation to eliminate his deputy. To this end, Abu al-Walid was placed in charge of the danger zone south of Grozny.

Abu al-Walid understood perfectly well what kind of action his boss was preparing, and decided to play ahead of the curve. First of all, he prepared a “fallback option” - Abu Rabia, who was in Tbilisi, prepared documents for him, civilian clothes and a route to Georgia. Having secured a possible retreat for himself, Abu al-Walid began to act.

To begin with, he enlisted the support of responsible figures from the Muslim Brotherhood group named Shagran and Abu Kuteiba. Abu al-Walid was able to convince them that Khattab and no one else is to blame for the decline in terrorist activity, as he appropriates money, preventing the recruitment of new militants, the purchase of weapons, explosives, ammunition and equipment.

Death was getting closer and closer to Khattab. In January 2002, the last (after Abu Yakub and Abu Sayyakh) financier of Khattab, Oybek Rasimov, nicknamed "Uzbek", was killed. With his death, Khattab lost his last close commander, whom he could fully trust.

But Abu al-Walid could not "topple" Khattab as long as he had powerful advocates in the Muslim Brotherhood. One of these people was a certain Abu Jaber, who all the time tried to embellish the achievements of Khattab and attributed to his sponsors clearly inflated combat results. An example of such activity is the bandit operation in Argun in December 2001, carried out by people from the so-called "Argun Jamaat" headed by Ismail Eskiev. The latter, before the start of the operation, tried to get money through Abu al-Walid, who unambiguously set him on Khattab, wanting to provoke a serious “showdown” with the latter. However, Eskiev died in battle, and Abu Jaber was able to attribute all the results to Khattab.

Convinced of the impossibility of removing Khattab through the sheikhs of the Muslim Brotherhood, Abu al-Walid decided to eliminate Khattab physically, which he managed to do at the end of February. True, after that, even such supporters of him as Abu Kuteiba turned their backs on Abu al-Walid. But the position of Khattab's deputy eventually ensured that al-Walid took his place after the death of the Black Arab.

Balancing on contradictions between field commanders and their foreign patrons, Abu al-Walid al-Ghamidi was able to acquire the same dominant position in the distribution of financial flows, which was occupied by Khattab, who was killed with his help. So, for one terrorist act in the Moscow metro on February 6, 2004, Abu al-Walid received four and a half million dollars, most of which he embezzled.

However, in the two years that have passed since the death of Khattab, the situation in Chechnya has become much less favorable for the militants, and the money for terrorist acts has become much less, and it has become increasingly difficult to carry them out. Therefore, Abu al-Walid, according to many experts, was going, like Khattab, to leave Chechnya and move to other regions of the world where one could still earn good money by waging a terrorist war.

The rocket and bomb attack on the mountain base where al-Walid was located on April 16, 2004, put an end to his presence in Chechnya. And it does not matter anymore whether he was killed (as most likely happened) or faked his own death in order to leave Chechnya. What matters is that it was the last major representative Arab "old guard" Khattab, who acted in connection with international terrorists and received money from them. Those who now remain in Chechnya are mostly privates and non-commissioned officers of the terrorist army. They still have the strength for daring sorties, but it is unlikely that there will ever be sufficient authority to force serious international terrorists to respect themselves in the way that Emir Khattab and his “younger brother” Abu al-Walid al-Ghamidi did.