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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son finally condemned the murder of Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi on Monday, but signaled that the world's most powerful startup would not change its business relationship with the Kingdom.
In his first public remarks on the subject of Khashoggi's death more than a month ago, His condemned the attack but said his Japanese conglomerate had a "responsibility" to keep investing the Saudis' money, framing the issue in terms of what it means for the Saudi people as opposed to the Saudi government.
"We want to see those responsible accountable. Aimed at the same time, we have an obligation to take over their economy and their economy, "Said a SoftBank earnings presentation in Tokyo. "As horrible as this event was, we can not turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their continued efforts to reform and modernize their society."
His said that SoftBank did "condemn this act of humanity and also journalism and free speech. This was a horrible and deeply regrettable act. "
His comments made so that he does not intend to have any problems with Saudis, who has already committed to back SoftBank's planned next tech investing fund. And by framing this as an attempt to help the Saudi people – no matter his frustrations with his unelected royal family – his is belatedly trying to claim some moral high ground.
The killing of Khashoggi chilled the relationship between the business community and Saudi Arabia, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Many leaders who have planned to attend a financial conference in RIyadh in the aftermath of their death, including Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi SoftBank-backed CEOs.
SoftBank, however, has a long history of controversy. His said Monday that did end up visiting the country, but not the conference, in order to share his concerns about Khashoggi's killing senior Saudi officials.
Its $ 100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund depends on $ 45 billion from the Saudis – but it was only sustainable for so long. He would have to make public comments eventually, and his son will be at the beginning of the day.
When would it be necessary to postpone it in the future, it would not be directly. But he told a second reporter that he should be paying attention to how the Saudis explain the Khashoggi death going forward.
"For the new cases or new projects, we would like to watch the outcome of the case," he said. "And once the explanation is fully made, then we will think about it."
