abdulaziz said two of his brothers were imprisoned a third pseudonymous account was shut down and it remains unclear what happened to the person behind itthe crackdown was an early sign of the saudi governments extreme measures to quash criticism which culminated in mr khashoggis murdermckinsey said it was horrified at the possibility that its information could have been misused in a note to former employees mckinsey said the researcher had published the analysis in january 2017 on an internal system and that it was intended only to showcase techniques to gauge social media usage and reactionimagecreditsaudi press agencyeven before prince mohammed rose up the royal hierarchy mckinsey and bcg nurtured ties to him bcgs top middle east executive joerg hildebrandt cultivated a relationship with prince mohammed in recent years according to two consultants who have worked in the region mr hildebrandt through a spokesman declined to commentafter prince mohammed was installed as defense minister in 2015 bcg landed a contract to help overhaul the ministrys procurement systems and improve its handling of finances and personnel two people familiar with the contract saidpress officers for the saudi embassy in washington did not respond to emails seeking commentin february 2016 consultants for mckinsey and bcg escorted five emissaries from the saudi royal court to make the rounds of think tanks in washington they informed gulf experts about mohammed bin salmans grand goals to remake saudi life while the consultants who outnumbered the saudis quietly took notesbcg has been deeply enmeshed in laying out the economic blueprint of the country called vision 2030 which aims to wean saudi arabia from its dependency on oil revenues a mckinsey report in 2015 laid out the broad strokes of that planasked by the economist in 2016 about a 4 trillion estimate of needed investment to transform the kingdoms economy the prince immediately recognized the figure this is a report from mckinsey not from the saudi government he replied adding that mckinsey participates with us in many studieslast months future investment initiative conference in riyadh a conclave championed by prince mohammed underscored saudi arabias importance to the consulting firms while executives companies and journalists pulled out amid the global furor over mr khashoggis murder they stayed onmckinsey led panels on money and energy the event program showed boston consulting group focused on unspecified intelligencein a statement bcg said it focused in saudi arabia on work that could positively contribute to economic and societal transformation and that the company has turned down work that goes against that principle the firm declines projects that involve military or intelligence strategy a spokesman saidfor years booz allen has trained the saudi navy part of an american government program to help allied militaries the company has worked with the navy on operations intelligence and electronic warfare as well as logistics and financial management it said in 2012 the contract ended last year a spokesman saiddozens of american military veterans work for booz allen in saudi arabia one retired rear admiral with