Khalid I Al-Ibrahim

Khalid I. Al-Ibrahim was described as “brother-in-law of a deceased king” and residing at Al Maather Royal Palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, as the owner of seven British Virgin Islands companies. Five of them are listed as doing businesses in American real estate and holding assets worth $7.5 million in total and a sixth is described as holding unappraised and “undeveloped land in Florida” worth “a few million dollars.” The leaked documents as well as Florida corporation records for the Ibrahim-tied companies are stacked with attorneys from Broad and Cassel (now Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel) as officers. The law firm is among the most influential in the state. The attorney signing off on the since-leaked documents, state company records as well as property deeds is C David Brown II, who had been managing partner of the firm’s Orlando office and later the company’s chair. He is now also a director at CVS Health. The Ibrahims rose from obscurity when Khalid Al-Ibrahim’s sister, Jawhara, married King Fahd, then-ruler of Saudi Arabia, becoming his fourth and reputedly favorite wife. Together they had a son, Prince Abdulaziz. The Ibrahims’ first foray into Florida real estate was in 1983 when they bought a struggling resort, Little England, near Orlando. The family saw its value appreciate. Through the 1990s, the family went on a buying spree in the state. Two other sisters also married into power: Maha Al-Ibrahim to Prince Abdulrahman, former deputy defense minister, and Mohdi Sheikha Al-Ibrahim to Khalid Al-Angari, who served as Saudi education minister from 1991 to 2014 and, later, ambassador to France. Khalid Al-Ibrahim and his brother, Abdul Aziz (not the prince), acquired — through shell companies — hotels, apartment complexes, offices, shopping centers and around 1,000 boat slips in Marina del Rey, the upscale seaside community neighboring Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1989. The Ibrahims started managing Prince Abdulaziz’s investments in the early 1990s and had commenced building a real estate empire in the United States, which included a Colorado ranch and four hotels managed by Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan, Washington, Houston and Aspen. At that time, the family’s wealth was estimated at $1.2 billion. Another brother of Khalid Al-Ibrahim, Waleed, established the Middle East Broadcasting Company in 1991. Half the profits of MBC went to King Fahd’s son and Waleed’s nephew, Prince Abdulaziz, who also steered the network’s ideological direction, according to a 2009 U.S. intelligence report published by Wikileaks. Waleed Al-Ibrahim was temporarily detained under orders of current de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as part of a 2018 corruption probe.