The most expensive home in the country, at $135 million, is on the market in Aspen, CO. according to the New York Times [registration required]. The seller? None other than Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former ambassador to the United States from Saudi Arabia, a.k.a., Bandar Bush.

You'll recall the Prince walking hand-in-hand with George W. Bush during a 2005 meeting in Texas. Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post, GOP congressman Peter King recently introduced Bush to a soldier injured in one eye. Bush teared up and asked the young man to take off his dark glasses so he could see the wound, King recalled. "Human instinct is when someone has a serious injury to look the other way," King said. "He actually asked him to take them off. He actually touched the eye a little. It was almost as if he felt he had to confront it."

Bandar Bush's home is modest. At 56,000 square feet, Hala -- which means 'welcome' in Arabic -- is bigger than the White House, with a staff of 12. It has 15 bedrooms, 16 baths, a private barbershop and beauty salon just off the master suite and enough space for a party of 450 people. Hala's broker has received 1,000 requests to tour the home since last October when it went on sale but only 11 were deemed wealthy enough to tour the house.

Bandar Bush reportedly received $2 billion secretly from a major British arms contractor, BAE Systems plc (LSE: BA). It's a nice little club and must be a great house -- you can see it if you're one of 947 billionaires and your eyes haven't been blown out by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has has no financial interest in BAE Systems.

Bandar Bush's billionaire bungalow originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The story has all the stuff of a steamy summer novel. A large British defense contractor pays millions to a Saudi prince, and now Washington regulators are trying to figure out if U.S. banks played a role. A BBC investigative report reveals that a Saudi prince who worked out an $80 billion arms arrangement between Britain and Saudi Arabia took secret payments for at least a decade. According to the probe, BAE Systems ADR (OTC: BAESY), one of Europe's largest arms dealers, distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Evidently, money changed hands with the full knowledge of the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence. Neither the Prince, nor the Defense Ministry would comment on the arrangement.

Former BAE chief executive Sir Raymond Lygo told the BBC there was "nothing untoward" about the arms deal, but he had nothing to say about the payments to the Prince. Britain's Serious Fraud Office first revealed the payments. It was trying to figure out whether or not they were illegal under British law when the office's investigations were halted out of fear of angering Saudi authorities, according the the BBC. They stopped in 2006. Prince Bandar is well connected. His father is the Saudi defense minister. The Prince now runs the Saudi national security council. He served as U.S. ambassador for two decades and the payments allegedly were funneled through Washington bank accounts.

The American connection: Marketplace reports that there are two key U.S. links to this story. The U.S. Department of Justice is taking an interest in the imbroglio because if it's true that money went through American banks, the case would fall under scrutiny of U.S. authorities. What's more, there's a political connection. The Pentagon is a huge customer of BAE. If anyone can think of a better plot line than the one threading this story, send us your ideas.

BAE, a prince and American banks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.