Cash settlements from a Saudi anti-corruption campaign in 2019 are predicted to be “not significantly less” than the $13.3 billion collected this year, it has been reported.
Saudi Arabia’s finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan made the comment in an interview with Reuters.
He also said that the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has no role in a company that is managing assets seized through settlements from the dozens of Saudi elite detained last year.
His comments come just days after it was announced that Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi is in the custody of authorities and has been charged with corruption and bribery.
The confirmation came more than a year after the tycoon was held in the kingdom’s anti-corruption campaign.
Al Amoudi was detained in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel last November along with dozens of princes, officials and businessmen as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declared a campaign against corruption.
Most of the detainees were released earlier this year; however several high-profile figures are still being held. The government has never officially announced who was freed, who remains in custody or what charges they face.
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