Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has sued Forbes magazine for libel in a British court, alleging that its valuation of his wealth at 20 billion dollars was short of the mark.
Alwaleed said the valuation was short of the mark by 9.6 billion dollars, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
The prince, a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder and nephew of King Abdullah, had attacked the U.S. magazine’s ranking of world billionaires as flawed and biased against Middle Eastern businesses after he was ranked number 26 in this year’s list.
An official at the High Court in London confirmed that Prince Alwaleed had filed a defamation suit against Forbes, its editor Randall Lane, and two of its newsmen on April 30.
Details of the claim were not immediately available.
Through his Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Alwaleed owns large stakes in Citigroup, News Corp and Apple Inc, among other companies.
He is also owner or part-owner of luxury hotels including the Plaza in New York, the Savoy in London and the George V in Paris.
This year’s Forbes World Billionaires list was published on March 4, and the following day Kingdom Holding said the valuation process used “incorrect data” and “seemed designed to disadvantage Middle Eastern investors and institutions”.
The public spat attracted a lot of comment, but Forbes stuck by its estimate of Prince Alwaleed’s wealth and published an in-depth article in its March 25 issue entitled “Prince Alwaleed and the curious case of Kingdom Holding stock”.
The article gave details about how Forbes had arrived at the figure of 20 billion dollars and criticised what it described as a lack of transparency by Kingdom Holding in detailing its assets.
The article also described Prince Alwaleed’s marble-filled, 420-room Riyadh palace, his private Boeing 747 equipped with a throne, and his 120-acre resort on the edge of the Saudi capital with five homes, five artificial lakes and a mini-Grand Canyon.
The High Court official in London said the two newsmen named in the defamation claim were Kerry Dolan, the author of the article, and Francine McKenna, who was credited with additional reporting.
No date has been set for a court hearing in the case, which is in its very early stages, the official said.
The law firm Kobre & Kim, which the Guardian said was acting for Prince Alwaleed in the suit, declined to comment.
New York-based Forbes could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Guardian article quoted the magazine as saying: “We’re very surprised at claims that Prince Alwaleed has decided to sue Forbes, particularly if he has done so in the UK, a jurisdiction that has nothing whatsoever to do with our recent story which raised questions about his claims about his wealth.”
Media lawyer Jonathan Coad, of the London firm Lewis Silkin, said London was seen as a more attractive place than New York to bring defamation suits because U.S. libel law made higher requirements of claimants. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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My dare prince will u stop figthing over DUNIYAH,what is the big deal if ur wealth is short fall of 9. Smthing bill.Pple are out there who does not ve anything near what u ve.To me I see this as a show off and Allah caution us from this.pls fight for smthing else wort fighting for.
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