Democrats ask Treasury to determine if golf merger is a national security risk

the top democrats in the Senate and the House on banking issues asked the Treasury Department on Friday to analyze whether the controversial merger agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf could pose national security risks.

“We are deeply concerned by the announced merger,” wrote Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The fusion was announced on June 6 and was proposed in part to settle the legal fight between the PGA Tour and LIV, the latter of which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

but the plan prompted immediate reprimand from the families of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, who blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks and felt they had been betrayed by the PGA Tour, as well as high-profile PGA Tour players who had not defected to the new circuit and who had given up potentially lucrative contracts to stay where they were.

The Brown and Waters letter asks Yellen to determine whether the proposed merger requires approval from the multi-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers of US companies by foreign entities for national security risks.

“We understand and appreciate that CFIUS is, by statute, an authority of last resort,” the couple wrote.

“As various US government agencies are evaluating this announced merger and reviewing its compliance with existing laws and regulations, we request that CFIUS evaluate the nature of this merger to determine if it has jurisdiction over the transaction and, if so, resolve any related national security risk. to the transaction.”

The new post-merger golf entity would be wholly owned by the Saudi Arabian wealth fund, Waters and Brown said.

“Saudi Arabia has a repressive government, known for freezing dissent, jailing dissidents and enacting draconian punishments,” they wrote, noting that US intelligence agencies have judged that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely approved the operation to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The merger has also come under scrutiny elsewhere on Capitol Hill. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) suggested that the Department of Justice block it on antitrust grounds. Other senators, such as Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), have also suggested a CFIUS review.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of using professional golf as a means to “sports wash”, or trying to improve their image by being associated with popular sports. But a golfer on the LIV tournament circuit, Bryson DeChambeau, recently told CNN the country is just trying to be seen in a new light.

“What I can say is that they are trying to do good for the world and show themselves in a light that hasn’t been seen in a long time,” he said. “And no one is perfect, but we are all trying to improve in life.”