The Senate Investigations Subcommittee scheduled a hearing on Sept. 13, to discuss the pending agreement between the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (SAPIF) and the PGA Tour.
The meeting, entitled “The PGA Tour LIV Deal – Examining Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund Investments in the United States,” is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. ET at Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Front Office Sports reports that no one has yet been asked to return to the PGA Tour. PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has once again refused to appear before the subcommittee.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee, has asked Al-Rumayyan, to appear before the committee. This is the first time that Al-Rumayyan has appeared in front of the committee since the announcement, made by the two entities, to form a commercial entity with the DP World Tour, which shocked the golfing world.
Akin Gump Strauss & Feld, the firm legally representing PIF, declined on behalf of its client in a letter dated August 23. Akin Gump Strauss & Feld – the law firm representing PIF – declined to testify on its behalf on August 23. The first report by Politico was that this letter came from Akin Gump Strauss & Feld.
In the letter, Raphael Prober, Akin Gump’s partner, wrote: “The PIF believes its support of forward-thinking businesses will facilitate growth and economic opportunity in the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as job creation around the globe.”
As the governor of a Saudi Arabian instrumentality and as a minister bound to the Kingdom’s laws governing the confidentiality of certain data, Al-Rumayyan cannot take part in any public hearings that are part of a broader inquiry into PIF’s interests, past and present, or future.
The PGA Tour, which is backed by the PIF, and LIV Golf were in litigation up until June when it announced a framework of its agreement. Parties have until December 31 to reach a final agreement.
The Tour has spent record amounts on The Hill in order to get the deal approved.
According to OpenSecrets , a nonprofit that tracks money in politics, the Tour spent $460,000 in federal lobbying during the first half of 2023. This is more than it spent in 2022.
