Obama accepted $1.3 million dollars in gifts from the Saudi royal family
Obama accepted $1.3 million dollars in gifts from the Saudi royal family
The U.S. government’s official federal accounting report was released last week and revealed the list of gifts to federal employees from foreign governments in 2014. According to the report, the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz spent over a million dollars on jewelry for Michelle Obama alone.
Dec 02, 2015, 09:00AM | Ateret Horowitz
Source: Obama accepted $1.3 million dollars in gifts from the Saudi royal family – JerusalemOnline
Photo Credit: Reuters /Larry Downing
The U.S. government’s official annual accounting report was released last week and revealed the list of gifts to federal employees from foreign governments in 2014. The list published a day before Thanksgiving shows that former Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was especially generous with the Obama family.
The monarch gave Obama another white gold men’s wristwatch with leather band in April 2014, with a value of $67,000 and a gold-plated brass replica of the Makkah Clock Tower in Mecca on a marble base, estimated at $57,000. Under the heading “circumstances justifying acceptance,” the report stated: “Nonacceptance would cause embarrassment to the donor and the U.S. government.”
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (January 27, 2015) greeted by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News
The U.S. law requires that the president must turn over all of the gifts that he received during his service to the National Archives or other institutions for the purposes of storage or display. However, if Obama would like to keep any of the gifts, he has to pay the fair market value for them.
The report moreover reveals that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a $440 photograph of the first U.S. consulate in Jerusalem circa 1888.
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