consolidating power for his son, crown prince mohammad bin salman, the main architect of the kingdom's war in yemen. among those arrested was prince alwaleed bin talal, one of the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of at least $17 billion. talal has investments in many well-known u.s. companies, like apple, twitter, citigroup, and rupert murdoch's media empire news corp. the arrests, on unspecified corruption charges, came just hours after the crown prince convened a new anti-corruption committee with wide-ranging powers to detain and arrest anyone accused and to search their homes and seize their assets. the arrests came as the white house said president trump called king salman to offer thanks for the kingdom's purchases of billions of dollars in u.s. weaponry, while praising what it called the kingdom's modernization drive. after these arrests and the consolidation of the prince's power, trump tweeted his support for the saudi arrests, writing -- "i have great confidence in king salman and the crown prince of saudi arabia, they know exactly what they are d

is seen as a power play by saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman. global news group -- global news 24 hours a day powered by over 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. scarlet: more on the saudi shakeup and the spotlight that it places on citigroup after its billionaire shareholder is arrested. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ julia: this is "bloomberg markets." i'm julia chatterley. scarlet: and scarlet fu. julia: to the shakeup in saudi ministers, and, former top officials were arrested in what authorities are calling a crackdown on corruption. among those arrested were prince allah we -- prince all will lead. for a closer look, we are joined by david campbell, he covers wall street for bloomberg news. the prince has been an investor in citigroup since 1991, so he is a long-term shareholder. he has been helping the bank tried to acquire a banking license. let's lay out the relationship and go from there. >> he's an investor>>, we have looked at the filings, he doesn't show up. he holds less than 5%, we believe, accordi

the crown prince, mohammad bin salman, his rise has been vertiginous, since his father took control, took power, and this move on saturday, we had the resident shin —— resignation of hariri, and then this round—up. the princes are best known, they ran the country for years, the businessmen who run the tv stations, who run the biggest businesses, they have been humiliated, if nothing else. today we heard from the saudis that more than 200 people have been called in for questioning, talking about at least $100 billion that has been involved in systematic corruption over the decades. most people would think that is an underestimate, even though it is an extraordinary amount of money, this is the way business was done through all these decades. the crown prince is trying to overturn that but in overturning that, it shakes the stability, not just of saudi arabia but of the region. he has the young people, they want this change, they believe it is necessary, the economy has been suffering with falling oil prices, something needed to be done. this may be pushing it too far. starting

mohammad bin salman on. it had an effect on the oil market. the funny thing is, it is something different when it comes to oil stocks. you wind up seeing the oil prices on the top line -- that big rally, 56 for wti. on the bottom line, you are seeing slows of the u.s. so, the oil etf. we haven't seen those kind of flows since last year. an interesting divergence. dicker andis -- dan kevin caron. who is right, the oil price for the uso? >> i think the uso is always wrong. it is private individuals, speculators and people who know nothing about the oil market. i will not follow anybody in her out. i want to point out the debate -- you have lots of room, momentum for energy stocks. the option market is looking a little bit there. >> that makes a horse race, but i will tell you this. man, you of bin sal could call it a power grab or a consolidation of power, but to me it is all about the bullishness of oil. this move to imprison his 11 cousins, brothers, and take away their power in the government, it is about seeing vision 2030 go off without a hitch. the biggest part is this upcom