New FARA Filings--January 24, 2025
New Filings from Richard Attias & Associates Show Work for Saudi Future Investment Initiative
New Foreign Registration Act filings for January 24, 2025, are limited to filings by Richard Attias & Associates for Attias’ work as the CEO of the Saudi Future Investment Initiative, sponsor of investment conferences including the famed “Davos in the Desert” conference held each fall in Saudi Arabia.
Attias is a long-time events organizer who has handled the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and events for the Clinton Global Initiative among others. It is unclear why Attias, a Moroccan citizen, is filing FARA reports for FFI, a foreign organization which he directs.
The institute is an arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund The head of the FFI is Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, who is also the Governor of the PIF.
The PIF, as it is known, was recently dethroned as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund by the United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala Investment Fund. In November, Al-Rumayyan was spotted with Trump ringside at a UFC event at Madison Square Garden.
The documents show that Richard Attias & Associates have raked in over $12 million in payments from FFI since mid-2022.
The filings have a few interesting details, including a pair of phone calls to Jared Kushner, whose Affinity Partners received a $2 billion investment from the PIF six months after leaving the Trump White House.
The next spring, Kushner appeared at the 2023 FFI Priority Conference in Miami, Florida, where he discussed “ideas for making a way forward through peace and prosperity in this new global order” with fellow presenter Brian Hook, a former State Department official who recently ran the State transition team for Trump.
Up next for the Future Investment Initiative is its 2025 Miami FFI PRIORITY Conference, February 19-22.