The Saudi crown prince leading a corruption crackdown that has seen dozens of his country’s wealthiest men locked up has been revealed by The New York Times as the buyer of "the world's most expensive home," reports The Telegraph.
The Chateau Louis XIV, a 50,000 sq ft palace near Versailles that Kim Kardashian once considered as a potential wedding location, was sold for 275 million euros (£200 million) in 2015.
The buyer was not identified at the time, but The New York Times now reports that its investigation shows that the purchaser was Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The newspaper’s probe showed a paper trail that leads from the purchase of the castle, which Forbes magazine has called the "world's most expensive home,” to the heir to the Saudi throne.
The claim is likely to embarrass the 32-year-old prince who is preaching fiscal austerity at home while leading a major crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the oil-rich kingdom’s elite.
Princes, sheikhs and business moguls used to sleeping in royal suites have been spending their nights on the floor of Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh under the watchful eyes of security forces loyal to the crown prince.
The New York Times said that Chateau Louis XIV's ownership was concealed by various shell companies in France and Luxembourg.
But they are all owned by Eight Investment Company, a Saudi firm run by the head of Prince Mohammed's personal foundation, it said, basing its claims on information revealed in the so-called Paradise Papers leak of millions of documents hacked from a Bermuda law firm.
Read the original report from The New York Times.