Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Sultan Loses To His Brother

This article in the UK Times Online states that the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world’s richest men, has failed in his attempt to have Prince Jefri, his younger brother, jailed in Britain in a family feud over £8 billion.

The Times reported that Prince Jefri Bolkiah won a key victory in the High Court last week in a five-year battle that has exposed the extraordinarily extravagant lifestyles of the brothers.


Prince Jefri, 51, has been accused by his brother Sultan Hassanal, 59, of embezzling £8 billion from the Brunei Investment Authority (BIA) during his 13 years as Finance Minister of the oil-rich country on the northern coast of Borneo.

Click on the 'article' above as well as Asiaweek.com article to read about this story which Asiaweek titled "Paradise Lost."

Asiaweek wrote, "Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei rules his tiny realm from the world's largest residential palace built on the edge of the Borneo jungle. The gold-domed Istana Nurul Imam has 1,788 rooms, which makes it bigger than the Vatican and on a par with Versailles."

Brunei also known as Negara Brunei Darussalam or Sultanate of Brunei has a population of 372,361 (July 2005 est.) according to the World Factbook.

1 comment:

Muhammadh said...

"According to documents filed in court, Jefri had been spending money at the rate of $747,000 a day for 10 years."

Gosh!