Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced on Thursday its decision to pull out one of its top executives in the upcoming Saudi investment conference next week amidst the mounting pressure from international governing bodies on Riyadh over the unexplained disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Goldman Sachs will join the growing list of high-profile financial institutions snubbing the slated investment summit. Bankers and business heads, including the chief executives of JP Morgan Chase & Co, BlackRock Inc, Blackstone Group, and even Ford Motor's chairman, have all bailed out from the event in the past few days, a report from Reuters said.
One of the latest names to pull out from the convention also include the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
As confirmed by Goldman Sachs' chief executive, David Solomon, in an interview with CNBC, the firm will deviate from its original plan to send its own Dina Powell to the conference following the public outcry over Khashoggi's purported murder.
Powell is a key member of the New York-based bank's management committee and also happened to have served under the administration of US President Donald Trump as a senior financial advisor.
Meanwhile, Riyadh has yet to explain the real deal behind Khashoggi's disappearance. The journalist vanished earlier in October after his visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
As pointed out by Solomon in the interview, the incident is deplorable and the oil kingdom owes the world that much-needed clarification on the issue.
Solomon added that depending on how those questions will be answered, this apparent cold treatment of the international business community to the Middle Eastern country will remain as is.
The CEO, who began his chairmanship on Goldman Sachs on Oct. 1, reiterated that they respect Saudi Arabia and have taken it by heart the nation's vision to participate in the global economy as well as with its plans to diversify its economic portfolio.
Goldman began its operations in Riyadh back in 2009 and was able to renew its licenses in 2014 and 2017.
As a compromise, Goldman Sachs will instead send over a handful of junior executives to the investment conference, a report from Slate said.
Worldwide Boycott
Aside from the business community, there are other sectors that will be joining the unified call to boycott the event. As reported, Fox News has already canceled its commitment to cover the said gathering.
Outlets such as CNN, the New York Times, and Bloomberg LP, had turned down earlier their invitation to participate in the conference.
