The Prince and the Prime Minister

A scathing British court ruling could create more legal problems for Prince Bandar, head of Saudi Arabia's National Security Council and the former Saudi ambassador in Washington, over his alleged role in a massive multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving a major British aerospace firm.

The Justice Department is investigating allegations that U.K.-based British Aerospace Systems (BAE) paid millions of dollars in bribes to Bandar and other Saudi officials—in possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Bandar, whose close ties to the Bush family earned him the nickname "Bandar Bush," has retained former FBI Director Louis Freeh to represent him in connection with the Justice Department probe. A spokesman said Freeh was traveling overseas and could not be reached for comment.

Last week the British High Court ruled that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's government may have interfered with the rule of law in December 2006, when it ordered the British government's Serious Fraud Office to shut down its own bribery investigation, allegedly after Bandar threatened to cut off Saudi cooperation with U.K. terrorism investigations if the inquiry continued. The ruling could pressure the fraud office to reopen its own shuttered investigation into the alleged scandal. (Bandar's representatives have repeatedly denied that he engaged in any wrongdoing).

A U.S. court recently froze Bandar's American assets after a Michigan pension fund with holdings in BAE sued to recover $2 billion in bribes the company had allegedly paid Bandar since 1986. Noting that Bandar had recently sold at least three U.S. properties that it claimed were purchased with BAE bribe money, the pension fund earlier this year persuaded U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer to issue a temporary injunction banning Bandar from selling any more U.S.-based property while the order is in force. (Bandar allegedly sold two residences in Aspen, Colo., one for $8.6 million and another for $3.925 million, according to court papers filed by the pension fund's lawyers. According to the court documents, Bandar still owns his sprawling Hala Ranch, a 95-acre property in Aspen said to feature 15 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a private barbershop and beauty salon, its own sewage treatment plant, sculpture gardens, fish ponds, ski trails, a massive hot tub and a barbecue pit large enough to roast goats. The property was valued at $135 million in 2006.)

Bandar is represented in the pension fund lawsuit by William Bradford Reynolds, the chief of the Justice Department's civil rights division during the Reagan administration. Reynolds did not respond immediately to a message from NEWSWEEK requesting comment.

Although Bandar has been rarely seen in the United States over the past year, a senior U.S. official who met with him last year said he has occasionally resurfaced to express his pique over the inquiries into the BAE matter. "He was mad, he was angry, he was in a snit," said one U.S. official who met with Bandar last year after the Justice Department had begun its probe. "He felt he was being treated unfairly."