David Bell

Mohammed bin Salman, well, powerful people, didn't think TV should be legal.

Mohammed bin Salman launched his final gambit towards consolidating absolute power.

He'd spent the days since the big Davos in the desert event, sending his secret police out to arrest and transport hundreds of the most powerful people in the kingdom to one location.

And this included multiple members of the royal family, as well as billionaire financiers who had helped to build the nation's economy.

These men were taken to the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh, one of the finest hotels in the world.

It was locked down for normal business.

Its staff was replaced by security officers and secret policemen.

Guests were made to surrender their cell phones and devices.

They were separated from their guards and sometimes vast fortunes.

One of these men was Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

He was the most famous businessman in the kingdom, a billionaire great-grandson of King Abdulaziz.

Prince Alwaleed was as protected a nobleman as you could imagine.

He was called by the royal court one morning and ordered to visit the king.

Another billionaire, Walid al-Ibrahim, had found himself in the same situation a day before.

So these are guys who should not have been vulnerable to something like this, right?

But the reality is – and King Salman knows this – these guys are not as rich in reality as they seem to be on paper because for decades, they'd relied on the Saudi state purse and public funds to prop up their bad investments and smooth over any mistakes they made.

And all of the richest people in Saudi Arabia were doing this.

This is part of why the economy was in the shitter, is these guys start making bad bets, and they're using the kingdom as a checkbook to cover their asses.

So this mass detainment that King Salman orchestrates of all these guys sends a message.

None of you are untouchable anymore.