Fun fact, the credit bureau problem is a real thing in the GCC.<p>So in states like Qatar, many people (I think the majority local citizens) caused enough problems the Central Bank has put many limitations on when people can take out loans. Friends who have long standing here indicate to me certain families still have banks look the other way, as it risky to dare check their eligibility. Many people here take out loans, get into arrears, and then go to court and keep negotiating down the debt owed arguing personal problems (I have lots of kids and mouths to feed and business is bad), and keep paying a few payments over the restructured agreement to ignore it again, go back to court, and keep negotiating the amount owed down. Not sure true this is, but I am told for many locals running business this is common knowledge. Ironically, as an expat, the restrictions got very tight because people would just flee, and now you can only leave the country for good once you have a no objection letter, meaning no bank over the course of a week can present you owe debt. This can get nasty, like the unemployed Irish dude in the neighboring UAE who lives in his car because he had nowhere to stay, no job, and selling his car would not even get him out of debt.<p>Granted, locals and expats alike are incredibly irresponsible, but the lack of credit bureau and honest reporting makes me wonder what America was like in the "good old old days" where creds got you what you wanted.
I lived in Khobar, Sanea spent like absolute crazy. Family and friends always joked about how it looked like a 7 star hotel instead of a hospital. They bought several residential compounds, including one I formally lived in. It always seemed like something was wrong, while the hospital was a fairly crowded one, there was no way it was actually turning a profit. The other stuff about the banking came as news to me though. Really interesting read.<p>Edit: To add on to this, the Gosaibis were a well respected name, they have since been driven AFAIK to the brink of bankruptcy, as the article mentioned they sold off their PepsiCo. factory and some of their other assets as well.
There is really interesting yet somehow disturbing trend that a lot of these foreign scams use a westerner to provide a feel of honesty and legitimacy.<p>I read a story before that during the massacre of Rwanda the dominant faction hired a Belgian and made him the biggest radio star in Rwanda. His job was to tell Rwandan Hutus that it was ok to murder Tutsis. Somehow the Hutus felt better if these instructions came from a European.
I recognise Sanea's story from all the spam about it that I received. Searching in my inbox reveals 6 of them in lists mostly about programming languages.<p>I wonder if they're what inspired Nicholas Schmidle to write about this.
Somehow I thought this was going to be a walk-into-a-bar joke, like<p>An American banker, a Saudi billionaire, and a financial implosion walk into a bar. Bartender takes one look at the implosion and says "You suck. I'm not serving you." Banker says, "Don't worry, he'll be gone in a sec but we're regulars."