On June 22, the Daily Mail reported that Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz paid the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, £50,000 as she gave the Saudi crown prince a kiss on a candlelit dinner in 1993.
The report shows that corruption is so ingrained in Saud Arabia’s royal family that despite the country’s enormous oil money, it struggles with problems such as poverty and unemployment.
According to Ferguson’s former personal assistant, Allan Starkie, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife asked the Saudi prince to pay off her overdraft, because her debt with Coutts was hovering just under £2 million.
Nayef replied, “Well I could consider doing that for a friend. I would like you to prove to me that if I do this, you’ll never be in debt again,” writes Starkie, in his book titled “Fergie, Her Secret Life”.
“In early December 1993, she discovered as she was checking through her bank statement that £50,000 had been deposited into her account.”
SSM/JR/HE
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