PetroSaudi International

Tarek Obaid served as CEO and Patrick Mahony as CIO and Director. Both were convicted in Swiss Federal Criminal Court in 2019 for fraud, criminal mismanagement, and money laundering related to the 1MDB joint venture. Obaid received a seven-year sentence and Mahony six years. As of their convictions, neither remains in a position to direct investments, and the firm has no known active investment operations.

In 2009, PetroSaudi entered a joint venture with Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign fund, structured through offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands and Seychelles. 1MDB contributed $1 billion in equity and arranged $1.5 billion in debt, ostensibly to develop oil assets. Swiss court records show that approximately $700 million was diverted to personal accounts controlled by Obaid and Mahony, with proceeds funding luxury real estate, superyachts, and a private jet. The underlying oil rights were later shown to be overstated or non-existent.

PetroSaudi International operated as a hybrid: it was founded with the trappings of a single-family office managing Saudi royal wealth, yet its external-facing activities centered on direct oil-exploration investments and sovereign joint ventures. The firm used Prince Turki bin Abdullah's royal lineage for sovereign access while routing deals through a network of offshore special-purpose vehicles — a structure that prosecutors later described as designed to obscure beneficial ownership and fund flows.

The United States Department of Justice and Swiss authorities have seized or frozen the firm's most significant assets, including the One Madison Park condominium in New York, residential properties in London's Red Mountain development and Geneva's Champel district, the Bombardier Global 5000 jet, and the superyachts Tatoosh and Alfa Nero. Additional forfeiture actions were filed in September 2023 targeting remaining proceeds. There is no known active investment portfolio.

The Sabrina Foundation was a charitable entity connected to Tarek Obaid. It received approximately $100 million in diverted 1MDB funds that were intended as a donation to the Mayo Clinic, per Department of Justice filings. The donation was never delivered to the Mayo Clinic, and the foundation's funds were subsequently targeted in civil forfeiture actions by U.S. authorities.

No. Following the 2019 Swiss convictions of its two senior operating principals and the multi-jurisdictional seizure of its assets, PetroSaudi International does not publicly maintain any active investment operations, website, or disclosed team. The firm exists solely as a reference entity in ongoing 1MDB-related asset recovery proceedings.

Rick Haythornthwaite, who later became Chairman of NatWest Group, served as Chief Operating Officer of PetroSaudi International during the period when the 1MDB joint venture was initiated. He left the firm in 2009 and was not charged in connection with the scheme. His tenure has been examined in subsequent due-diligence reviews of his board appointments.