Mnuchin to attend top Saudi event, media exit over missing journalist

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Wall Street bankers will present up at an elite Saudi funding convention this month regardless of a rising exodus of top media corporations and enterprise leaders after the disappearance of a Saudi journalist.

Mnuchin’s plan to attend the high-profile Future Investment Initiative convention in Riyadh follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s feedback that he noticed no cause to block Saudi Arabian investments within the United States regardless of concern over the welfare of Jamal Khashoggi.

“I am planning on going at this point. If more information comes out and changes, we can look at that, but I am planning on going,” Mnuchin stated in an interview with CNBC on Friday.

In a letter to Trump, the leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee stated Mnuchin ought to cancel plans to attend the convention until Saudi Arabia absolutely discloses what it is aware of about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“We urge you to use all pressure necessary to encourage greater Saudi cooperation in the investigation into this incident,” stated the committee’s chairman, Republican Ed Royce, and its top Democrat, Eliot Engel.

Pressure has mounted on U.S. ally Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi insurance policies, went missing. He was final seen getting into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Turkish officers have stated Khashoggi was murdered contained in the consulate. Riyadh has stated the claims are baseless.

CNN, the Financial Times, the New York Times, CNBC and Bloomberg, in addition to reporters and editors from the Economist, stated they have been not collaborating within the convention, which depends closely on journalists to average top periods.

CNBC and Bloomberg, together with Fox Business Network, have been amongst media companions with an enormous position on the occasion, which begins on Oct. 23.

Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, U.S. mass media conglomerate Viacom Inc CEO Bob Bakish and billionaire Steve Case, one of many founders of AOL, stated they have been not going. Entrepreneur Arianna Huffington may also not take part and has resigned from the convention advisory board, her firm Thrive Global PR stated.

The absence of media and know-how executives is probably going to forged a shadow over the three-day convention, generally known as “Davos in the desert”, which has develop into the most important present for buyers to promote Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reform imaginative and prescient.

It has attracted a few of the world’s enterprise elite, together with Wall Street’s top bosses and executives from multinational media, know-how and monetary providers corporations.

On Friday, convention organizers eliminated all of the names of attendees from its web site because the variety of cancellations grew.

“Whilst it is disappointing that some speakers and partners have pulled out, we are looking forward to welcoming thousands of speakers, moderators and guests from all over the world to Riyadh,” a Future Investment Initiative spokesperson stated.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, listed as a speaker, won’t go to Riyadh due to a scheduling battle, a World Bank official stated on Friday.

Asked about enterprise leaders’ doubts concerning the convention, a Saudi diplomatic supply stated late on Thursday that he hoped a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation into the affair might attain a conclusion earlier than the occasion started.

However, the fallout over Khashoggi’s welfare exhibits indicators of extending past convention participation.

British billionaire Richard Branson stated his Virgin Group would droop discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a deliberate $1 billion funding within the group’s area ventures.

On Wednesday, former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz stated he had suspended his position on the board of Saudi Arabia’s deliberate mega enterprise zone NEOM – one other of Prince Mohammed’s giant tasks – till extra is understood about what occurred to Khashoggi.

TOP GUNS

While many media and know-how executives have deserted the convention, the monetary business confirmed no indicators of doing so.

None of the monetary companies whose senior executives have been scheduled to converse stated that they had made any modifications to these plans when contacted by Reuters.

Europe’s largest financial institution, HSBC, declined to touch upon whether or not CEO John Flint continues to be attending. HSBC is a ‘strategic partner’ of the occasion, together with Credit Suisse, whose CEO Tidjane Thiam continues to be planning to attend, in accordance to a supply accustomed to the matter.

Bill Winters, CEO of Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused financial institution Standard Chartered is likewise nonetheless planning to go, a spokeswoman on the lender informed Reuters. JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon was scheduled to converse, as was Mastercard Inc CEO Ajay Banga. Representatives for these corporations, in addition to Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Siemens AG stated CEO Joe Kaeser nonetheless deliberate to attend.

High-profile buyers additionally steered away from saying plans to abandon the convention. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset supervisor, stated it was “closely monitoring the situation.”

Private fairness firm Blackstone didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon whether or not CEO Stephen Schwarzman would nonetheless converse on the occasion.

A spokesman for the London Stock Exchange, whose CEO David Schwimmer can also be a speaker, declined to remark. The change has been working for years to appeal to the itemizing of Saudi state oil main Aramco.

The City of London, Britain’s monetary district and one of many essential lobbyists for the nation’s finance sector, stated it’s urgently looking for extra info on Khashoggi. Its chief Catherine McGuinness is due to attend the convention.