"In the early 1970s, when the petrodollars started flooding in, enterprising Lebanese began smuggling hookers into the kingdom for the princes. Since the women were posing as Middle East Airlines flight attendants, and were driven directly to the royal palaces, the mutawwa couldn't do anything about it. Having established a beach-head in the kingdom, a lot of the Lebanese pimps branched out into interior decorating and construction. Since no one in royal family knows how to balance a checkbook, the Lebanese became fabulously rich. More than a couple went back to Lebanon and built political careers with their fortunes." (p. 26)
From Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude (2004) by Robert Baer (a retired Middle East case officer in the CIA).