Saudi PIF Advisers Could Face 20 Years In Prison If They Comply With U.S. Probe Into PGA Tour, LIV Golf

Lawsuits involving the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sole funder of LIV Golf, were put on pause when the two sides announced an agreed upon framework agreement in June 2023. The agreement took care of, at least for the time being, big-picture litigation in the United States, but not so much elsewhere.

PIF governor and LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is allegedly facing a $74 million lawsuit in Canada. The governor of a Public Investment Fund valued at approximately $700 billion facing a $74 million lawsuit isn't exactly earth-shattering news, but there is much more to the situation here.

According to Bloomberg, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has threatened to imprison bankers and consultants it has worked with if those individuals elect to cooperate with the United States government's investigation into the agreement between the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF.

Phil Mickelson's infamous quote from 2022 describing the Saudis as "scary motherfu-kers" to get involved with immediately comes to mind here.

In November 2023, the Saudi PIF made a move that flew under the radar by suing its own advisers in Saudi court to block submissions of information to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

U.S. Government Keeps Close Tabs On LIV Golf

The U.S. Department of Justice, the Senate, and various politicians on Capitol Hill have shown increased interest in the dealings and business being done between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF since the agreed upon framework was announced this past summer.

On Feb. 6, the committee held a hearing in Washington, D.C., that featured PIF consultants, but Al-Rumayyan and other PIF officials have not appeared at any hearings or shown that they will comply with any investigations being done by the U.S. government.

Rich Lesser of Boston Consulting Group made note of the potential 20-year prison sentence during the February 6 hearing in D.C.

"The PIF has been explicit that the disclosure of information relating to BCG’s work for PIF is a violation of Saudi law, which ‘imposes criminal penalties for disclosing or disseminating such information including imprisonment for a maximum of 20 years,’" Lesser said. "We risk criminal and financial penalties for the firm and for individuals working or living in Saudi Arabia."

The hearing committee countered by noting that advisers and firms "have only provided a fraction of the documents demanded in a congressional subpoena." Senate records showed that documents that were submitted mostly consisted of calendar invites with redacted names, publicly available records and news clippings.

In a statement provided to OutKick dated February 6, the PIF states that it is "committed to working with the Subcommittee in good faith in a manner that is consistent with PIF’s status and obligations as an instrumentality of Saudi Arabia" while also stating that the Subcommittee's requests are "unprecedented."

"We have been and are committed to working with the Subcommittee in good faith in a manner that is consistent with PIF’s status and obligations as an instrumentality of Saudi Arabia. We have made, and are continuing to make, significant efforts to facilitate the production of requested information from our advisors consistent with the laws of Saudi Arabia, which should be recognized like those of any other country," the statement reads. 

"To date, we have facilitated production from our advisors of thousands of substantive pages of presentations, correspondence, and final deliverables related to our investments and their work on our behalf. We are engaged in extensive and rapid document reviews and will continue working constructively and with integrity with the Subcommittee with relevant information that can legally be disclosed under the laws of Saudi Arabia."

"The Subcommittee’s requests are sweeping and unprecedented in seeking to compel the production of confidential and classified information of a foreign sovereign instrumentality, but we hope to work with the Subcommittee to resolve these issues."