Goldman Sachs joins firms pulling out of Saudi investor summit

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said Thursday that no one from his firm would be attending the upcoming investor conference in Saudi Arabia, making Goldman Sachs the latest company to back out of the event amid the controversy over a Saudi journalist’s disappearance. 

Solomon told CNBC that the firm was set to send Dina Powell, a Goldman executive who served in the Trump administration, to the Future Investment Initiative Summit hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week in Riyadh. 

{mosads}But Solomon said that the company changed course over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance.  

“This incident is unacceptable, and clearly they have to answer questions,” Solomon said in an interview with the news network. “How they answer those questions and how more information becomes apparent around this will have an impact on how we all interact.” 

The decision from Goldman’s CEO came the same day that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that he would not be attending the conference. 

“Just met with @realDonaldTrumpand @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,” Mnuchin tweeted Thursday morning.

The CEOs of JP Morgan Chase & Co, Blackstone Group LP, BlackRock Inc and the chairman of Ford Motor Co. have all announced they would not attend. 

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and outspoken critic of the Saudi government, went missing in early October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect marriage-related papers. 

Turkish officials have accused Saudi operatives of killing him there and dismembering his body.

President Trump said Thursday that “it certainly looks like” Khashoggi was killed after entering the consulate. 

Saudi Arabia has continued to deny involvement.