"}Saudi\n Arabia announced the arrest on Saturday night of the prominent \nbillionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other \nprinces, four ministers and tens of former ministers.
The\n announcement of the arrests was made over Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned \nsatellite network whose broadcasts are officially approved. Prince \nAlwaleed\u2019s arrest is sure to send shock waves both through the Kingdom \nand the world\u2019s major financial centers.
He\n controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world\u2019s \nrichest men, with major stakes in News Corp, Citigroup, Twitter and many\n other well-known companies. The prince also controls satellite \ntelevision networks watched across the Arab world.
The\n sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to \nconsolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite \nson and top adviser of King Salman.
At\n 32, the crown prince is already the dominant voice in Saudi military, \nforeign, economic and social policies, stirring murmurs of discontent in\n the royal family that he has amassed too much personal power, and at a \nremarkably young age.
The\n king had decreed the creation of a powerful new anti-corruption \ncommittee, headed by the crown prince, only hours before the committee \nordered the arrests.
Al\n Arabiya said that the anticorruption committee has the right to \ninvestigate, arrest, ban from travel, or freeze the assets of anyone it \ndeems corrupt.
The\n Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh, the de facto royal hotel, was evacuated \non Saturday, stirring rumors that it would be used to house detained \nroyals. The airport for private planes was closed, arousing speculation \nthat the crown prince was seeking to block rich businessmen from fleeing\n before more arrests.
among the other people arrested are prince mutaib bin abdullah, son of the previous king abdullah but more importantly head of the saudi arabian national guard, a militia set up to check the regular military\u2019s power and forestall against coup attempts by creating a parallel structure, and waleed al-ibrahim, the head of powerhouse saudi satellite channel MBC (not to be confused with the south korean channel of the same name which ran a former esports and current kpop channel (rip MSL)) and brother-in-law of the former king fahd