Prince Alwaleed's Life Bargain

Guest: Jeff Towson, Professor, Investment, Peking University, and Private Equity Investor Saudi Arabia’s richest man - and one of the world’s richest people, period - is in a standoff with the Saudi government.  A few months ago Saudi leaders put some 200 prominent businessmen and investors under arrest at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh as part of a crackdown on corruption. Slowly, the detainees have been released after agreeing to pay settlements likely to total $100 billion for the Saudi government. But Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal – the richest of the tycoons caught in the roundup – has held out.  And now reports indicate his time to work a deal is running out: he’s been moved to a real jail. What makes this more than just a story of palace intrigue is the fact that Al-Waleed owns stakes in a lot of Western companies – Citibank, 21st Century Fox, Twitter, the Four Seasons. He’s also a major philanthropic partner of Bill Gates.