Prince Turki: The man with everything (original) (raw)

The man who allegedly received most from BAE's £60m slush fund, Turki bin Nasser, is a rich man.

He has nearly 200 classic cars, a £20m private Boeing business jet, a large yacht called the Sarah, a sumptuous mansion in Beverly Hills and houses in Barcelona, Riyadh, Dharan and London. His London home is in Sussex Square, near Hyde Park.

Prince Turki's influence comes from being a son-in-law of the Saudi defence minister, Prince Sultan, one of the clan of brothers who run the oil state.

He is a qualified fighter pilot, and holds the title of air force major-general. He handles the Al Yamamah arms deals, which have earned BAE more than £1.5bn a year for the past decade, selling planes, and warships to the Saudi royal family.

Although the main deliveries of Tornados are completed, Saudi Arabia is still paying hundreds of millions of pounds to BAE for maintenance contracts and air force training.

The firm is seeking a new £1.5bn deal to re-equip the now outdated warplanes with upgraded avionics and missiles.

Prince Turki's name has long been linked with allegations of under-the-counter commission deals in the £50bn Al Yamamah contracts, which began under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Published transcripts of intercepted telephone calls in 1984 named him as a participant in discussions as to which of two groups of Britons should benefit as intermediaries - "John" or "Mark".

John was later suggested to be Jonathan Aitken, (later disgraced as the Tory arms sales minister because of commission dealings with Saudis). Mark was alleged to be Mark Thatcher, Lady Thatcher's son.

The transcripts quoted Prince Turki as backing John, saying" "I think Mark's connections regarding the military equipment ... we can't compare it with John's connections."

But Mark Thatcher was later alleged to have received up to £12m for his part in the deal.