ESAT News (November 9, 2017) Saudi Arabia’s attorney general says at least $100bn has been embezzled through systemic corruption and embezzlement in recent decades. The BBC report quoted Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb, the attorney general as saying that 199 people were being held for questioning as part of a sweeping anti-corruption drive that began on Saturday night. The attorney general did ...

ESAT News (November 8, 2017) The serious shortage in foreign currency has stagnated the economy, the Governor of the Ethiopian National Bank says, as the country’s telecom fails to pay loans and carry out its routine operation. The Governor told the Ethiopian Parliament that the low turnover in foreign currency that the country derives from export trade has dwindled, which ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 8, 2017) Overseas businesses owned by Mohammed Hussien al Amoudi, the Ethiopian born Saudi billionaire, who is among businessmen and princes arrested under Saudi’s anti- corruption measures, would not be affected by the crackdown that also aimed at freezing the assets of suspects, according to a spokesperson for the sheikh. But his asset in ...

ESAT News (November 7, 2017) Princes and businessmen arrested on Sunday in Saudi’s crackdown on corruption are reportedly sleeping on bare mattresses on the lobby floor of a five star hotel. Review.org reports that the mattresses were re-structured memory foam mattresses from online mattress manufacturer Nectar. Nectar has not responded to our claims to verify this fact. The Daily Mail ...

ESAT News (November 7, 2017) Businesses in Dessie, a commercial town in the Amhara region, went on strike today opposing the drastic tax hike imposed by authorities. Early this year Ethiopian authorities imposed draconian taxes on small businesses. The measure has faced backlash from the business community that faces unfair competition by ruling party conglomerates which involve all types of ...

ESAT News (November 7, 2017) The Secret Service arrested an Ethiopian man on Monday near the White House after they had been told to be on the lookout for a man who allegedly threatened to kill “all white police” there, according to a CNN report. Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, alerted the US Secret Service that the Ethiopian man planned ...

ESAT News (November 6, 2017) Saudi Arabia says accounts of princes and businessmen, who are arrested on suspicion of corruption will be frozen. The announcement by the Kingdom also says money derived from corruption will be reimbursed to the Saudi state’s General Treasury. The report by Al Arabiya, which broke the news of the arrest on Sunday also said there ...

by Engidu Woldie ESAT News (November 5, 2017) Ethiopian born Saudi tycoon, Mohammed al-Amoudi, is among those arrested in Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom’s newly formed anti-corruption campaign targets princes, ministers and several other officials and businessmen. Reuters listed 17 princes and officials and Mohammed al-Amoudi’s name was also mentioned as one of the businessmen arrested. ESAT cannot immediately verify ...

ESAT News (November 3, 2017) Authorities in Addis Ababa are conducting an investigation into a 4 star hotel and other properties that are allegedly owned by Bereket Simon, a leading member of the ruling party who recently resigned from his post as deputy head of the Ethiopian Policy Research Institute, according to ESAT sources. The investigation has specially zoomed in ...

ESAT News (November 3, 2017) An attack masterminded by Ethiopian regime intelligence and security which was aimed at diplomats visiting a mega hydroelectric dam has failed as two of the soldiers tasked with the mission have disappeared, according to ESAT’s intelligence sources. According to the sources, the mission was to carry out an attack with no harm to anyone and ...