What happens now that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has subpoenaed the PIF?
It’s no secret that Saudi Arabia has created waves in the sporting world recently and in many corners of the world, they haven’t been well received.
As the kingdom continues to assert itself through significant investment in sport, there are those who have been questioning whether it’s all above board. Indeed, even some at the congressional level have begun to demand answers.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal continues crackdown on the PIF
If there was any takeaway from a hearing held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Wednesday, it’s that it won’t tolerate any unanswered questions where Saudi Arabian involvement in American business endeavors, particularly in the world of sports, is concerned. That was indeed evidenced by the subpoena that the subcommittee issued. In our previous report, you would have seen that the subcommittee was in the process of investigating the relationship between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the PGA Tour among other sporting entities. That investigation did not feature testimony from any official of the PIF and that was something that Sen. Richard Blumenthal simply could not abide.
“The Saudis’ Public Investment Fund cannot have it both ways: if it wants to engage with the United States commercially, it must be subject to United States law and oversight,” Blumenthal said in a previously released statement. As for Wednesday morning’s hearing, it’s worth noting that prior to its beginning Blumenthal himself stated that he would be issuing a subpoena to one of the PIF’s U.S.-based subsidiaries in an effort to secure “documents related to PIF’s takeover of American golf and other investments throughout the United States.”
So, the PIF hasn’t given testimony?
As you would also have seen in the previous report that was mentioned above, the subcommittee had sought the testimony of PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman at a July hearing, however, both men declined to appear as they cited ‘scheduling conflicts. Conversely, two PGA Tour officials did in fact attend and spoke on the now infamous shock agreement that was made between the PGA Tour and the PIF in June. “Over multiple communications spanning the next month and despite the subcommittee’s offers to accommodate his schedule, PIF’s counsel repeatedly declined to provide any availability for Governor Al-Rumayyan’s appearance,” Blumenthal stated in the subpoena memo.
It’s worth mentioning that In August, Blumenthal reiterated his request for Al-Rumayyan to testify via a letter that disputed the contention that Al-Rumayyan is an “inappropriate witness” in the Senate’s investigation of the ongoing PIF-PGA Tour agreement because he is “a minister bound by the Kingdom”s laws regarding the confidentiality of certain information.” As per Blumenthal’s letter, the Subcommittee “is seeking to understand the scope of PIF’s U.S.-based investments and PIF’s plans for the PGA Tour and other U.S. entities.”
What else has been said about the PIF?
Also in attendance at Wednesday’s hearing was Benjamin Freeman, the director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and this is what he had to say in his opening remarks:
“We’d be naive to believe that the PIF’s actions related to the PGA Tour are not part of the Kingdom’s much larger lobbying, public relations, and broader influence operation in the U.S.,” he said. “Last month at this Subcommittee’s hearing, the PGA Tour witnesses made clear that there is no business rationale that can explain the PIF’s extraordinary spending on the game of golf. ...[Saudi officials] want to rebrand themselves. They want Americans to associate Saudi Arabia with golf rather than the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.”
It remains unclear what happens next, but for the moment what is crystal clear is that Blumenthal’s subpoena seeks “all records referring or relating to the Framework Agreement between the Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour,” by no later than October 13th.