Saudi state-owned enterprises prosecute former spy chief in Canada over suspected $ 3 billion fraud | Saudi Arabia

Saudi state corporations have sued the country’s former intelligence chief in a Canadian court claiming he stole billions of dollars, according to documents obtained by the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The 10 subsidiaries of Tahakom Investment Co, which is owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, said in the civil lawsuit filed in Ontario’s superior court that Saad Aljabri had committed “massive fraud” totaling at least $ 3.47 billion.

Aljabri, exiled in Canada, was one of the main collaborators of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was deposed as heir to the throne by Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a coup in 2017.

An Aljabri defense campaign said in a statement that he and his family “will vigorously fight the charges of recycled corruption and are confident they will succeed in dismissing them.”

Prince Mohammed ben Nayef is still detained in Riyadh.

The Ontario court has ordered Aljabri’s assets worldwide to be frozen.

The lawsuit describes properties in Saudi Arabia, luxury condos in Boston and various properties in Canada as illegal proceeds.

He accuses Aljabri of funneling money from Saudi-funded companies for counterterrorism activities, including purchasing security equipment, transporting agents around the world and paying informants, for himself, his family and his friends.

“Although the investigation is ongoing, it is clear that from at least 2008 to 2017, Aljabri planned and oversaw a plot that recruited at least 21 conspirators in at least 13 jurisdictions to embezzle” funds, according to the lawsuit. .

Supporters say the trial is an attempt to distract from the “brutality” of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS.

Last August, Aljabri filed a lawsuit in the United States, alleging that MBS sent a “strike” to Canada in 2018 in an attempt to kill and dismember him in the same way as Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi had been killed in Istanbul in October. this year.

But the plot was reportedly captured and interrupted by Canadian police before they could act.

Khashoggi’s assassination sparked international outcry and tarnished the reputation of the oil-rich kingdom and the crown prince.

Aljabri said MBS wanted him dead because he was close to Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and because he had intimate information about the de facto Saudi ruler that would harm the close relationship between Washington and Riyadh.