Saudi prince sues Forbes over place on billionaires list

A Saudi prince has launched a defamation lawsuit against Forbes magazine in a U.K. court for placing him too low on its annual list of the world's billionaires, the Guardian newspaper has reported.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal claims the U.S. business publication was off by $9.6 billion US when it calculated his net worth at $20 billion, placing him 26th on the 2013 list of billionaires instead of in the Top 10 where he felt he belonged. This year's list, published in March, had a total of 1,426 names of people on it, whose aggregate net worth is $5.4 trillion US.


Alwaleed argues in a claim reportedly filed in a high court in London that by not allotting him the ranking he feels he deserves and by suggesting in a March 2013 story that his own assessment of his net worth and that of his business, Kingdom Holding Company, is overblown, Forbes damaged his reputation.
The Guardian reported that court documents name the Forbes publisher, the magazine's editor and two Forbes journalists as defendants in the defamation suit.
The prince alleges that the U.S. publication's assessment of his company is also indicative of a general bias against Saudi firms and Middle East investors.
"We continue to be bemused by Prince Alwaleed's ego-driven PR stunt," Forbes said in a statement emailed to CBC News on Friday. "Forbes still has not been served with any lawsuit. Our story raises significant questions about his finances, and we would welcome the opportunity to uncover further relevant information during the course of any hypothetical suit."