Treasury Secretary Mum on Potential CFIUS Review of LIV Golf-PGA Tour Deal
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declined to say this week whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. would look into the Saudi-backed LIV Golf’s purchase of the PGA Tour despite several lawmakers urging CFIUS to review the deal. Yellen, speaking during a June 13 House Financial Services Committee hearing, said she couldn't comment on a potential review because there are “very strict rules of confidentiality,” but suggested the committee would review the acquisition if it implicated U.S. national security.
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“The committee is very well positioned to review transactions that do involve national security concerns,” Yellen said. “If there are national security risks, then the answer is yes,” she said, CFIUS would review the deal.
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the House committee’s top Democrat, urged CFIUS to examine the merger, saying Saudi officials behind LIV Golf are part of a “repressive government known for killing dissidents, jailing dissidents and enacting draconian punishments.” Waters said, “I do believe and hope that CFIUS will take it up.”
Earlier this week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters to both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour demanding “communications and records” from their planned merger. He said the deal "raises concerns about the Saudi government’s role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution.”