Saudi Prince Sues Forbes For Underestimating His Wealth.

A Saudi prince is suing Forbes magazine
for libel because it said he was only worth
$20billion in its annual rich list instead of
$30billion.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the
world's richest businessmen, claims the
magazine underestimated his wealth by
£9.6billion when it placed him at 26th in
this year's list.
Being listed as worth $29.6billion would
have placed him in the list's top ten.
Alwaleed accused Forbes of 'flawed and
inaccurate, displays bias against Middle
East investors and financial institutions' in
an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in
March.
The prince has now brought libel action
against the magazine's publisher Randall
Lane and two journalists in the High Court
in London, reports the Guardian.
He will claim that the Rich List caused
serious harm to his reputation and to his
company Kingdom Holdings' finances.
His company Kingdom Holdings controls
investments including stakes in Apple,
Facebook, Twitter and Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp.
His property includes the Savoy Hotel, the
Plaza in New York, the Four Seasons hotel
chain and a stake in the owners of
London's Canary Wharf complex.
Forbes calculated the prince's wealth
based on the value of his known
investments instead of Kingdom's share
price on the Taduwal, the Saudi stock
exchange, it said.
The prince told the Sunday Telegraph: 'I
am not pursuing it because of my wealth,
but because they are accusing Saudi Arabia
of being manipulated because we have no
casinos. This is unacceptable.'
The libel action is being brought at
London's High Court
A spokesman for Forbes told the
Guardian: 'We're very surprised at claims
that Prince Alwaleed has decided to sue
Forbes, particularly if he has done so in
the United Kingdom, a jurisdiction that has
nothing whatsoever to do with our recent
story which raised questions about his
claims about his wealth.
'The Prince's suit would be precisely the
kind of libel tourism that the UK's
recently-passed libel reform law is
intended to thwart. We would anticipate
that the London high court will agree.
Forbes stands by its story.'