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WASHINGTON - It may be billed as "the greatest listing in the world" but Hala Ranch in the Rocky Mountains is proving hard to shift.
With a price tag of US$135 million ($172 million), the ranch is also the most expensive home ever put on the market in the United States.
It is owned by Bandar bin Sultan, the Arab Prince at the heart of the £1 billion ($2.5 billion) corruption inquiry into BAE Systems, who until last year was the much-lauded Saudi Ambassador to Washington.
His visits to the US are far less frequent nowadays, perhaps because he is concerned that revelations about millions of dollars in kickbacks flowing into his US bank account could trigger a criminal inquiry. Prince Bandar flatly denies the accusations. Joshua Saslove, the estate agent handling the sale, told the New York Times that the Prince's lawyers had agreed to only 11 of the 1000 requests to see the ranch.
It boasts 15 bedrooms, 16 baths and a vast indoor swimming pool. It requires a staff of 12 to run it.
- INDEPENDENT
