A powerful Washington D.C.-based lobbying firm was retained by a Congressional investigation into LIV golf and the Saudi Arabian-backed Public Investment Fund to shield Yasir al-Rumayyan’s privacy.
According to Politicalo Akin Gump Strauss & Feld was retained by PIF to push back against the investigation, as the sovereign funds insists that some of it is subject to immunity.
PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and board members Jimmy Dunne, were sworn-in at a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on June 1st in Washington D.C., to discuss the proposed agreement between the PGA Tour DP World Tour PIF.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is the chairman of this committee. He has publicly criticized the deal. It is expected that the two previously warring factions of golf will be united under the same commercial umbrella.
Akin Gump’s representative told Politico that Al-Rumayyan shouldn’t be forced to attend any future hearings.
Raphael Prober is a lawyer in the firm who wrote to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. He argued that the fund’s governor “cannot take part in any public hearings that are part of a broader inquiry into PIF’s current, past and future investments and interests.”
Blumenthal, the chair of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations since June, has asked PIF Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan to testify.
Prober’s letter stated that “An unprecedented attempt by the Subcommittee would disrupt the delicate balance between foreign relations and diplomacy internationally, and would compromise the Executive Branch’s prerogatives.”
Prober is a partner of Akin Gump and co-heads its congressional investigations division.
The letter was dated August 23 but submitted to the Justice Department Aug. 30. It is the latest volley of the PIF’s battle with Blumenthal’s Subcommittee regarding Al-Rumayyan’s possible testimony as part an investigation into the wealth fund’s U.S. investment. The subcommittee began an investigation after it was announced in June that PIF-financed LIV Golf League and PGA Tour were merging after months of bitter rivalry between the two ventures.
LIV Golf Series CEO Greg Norman and Yasir al-Rumayyan of Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia at the LIV Golf Series invitational event in Chicago, Sept. 18, 2022. Rich Harvest Farms, Illinois. (Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press).
The deal was described in a six-page report sent by the Tour to the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations prior to the hearing.
- The future of LIV Golf will be decided on by the board, which will be controlled a majority by Tour members.
- A “Communications Committee”, which will “help facilitate a seamless business transition” as well as “coordinate and maintain communications” between PIF and LIV, will be formed.
- The PIF is “a premier corporate sponsorship” of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. It will also be a title-sponsor for at least one international tour.
- The agreement to create a global golf entity is referred to as “NewCo”
