Reuters
Those caught up in the anti-corruption drive are reportedly being held at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton
Saudi Arabia's attorney general says at least $ 100bn (£ 76bn) has been misused through systemic corruption and embezzlement in recent decades.
Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said 201 people were being held for questioning
He did not name any of them, but they reportedly included senior princes, ministers and influential businessmen.
"The evidence for this is wrongdoing is very strong," Sheikh Mojeb said.
He also stressed that normal commercial activity in the kingdom had not been affected by the crackdown, and that only personal bank accounts had been frozen.
Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said the investigation by the newly-formed supreme anti-corruption committee, which is headed by 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, were "progressing very quickly"
He stated that 208 individuals had been called in for questioning so far, and that seven of them had been released without charge.
"The potential scale of corrupt practices that have been uncovered is very large," the attorney general said. "Based on our investigations over the past three years, we estimate that at least $ 100bn has been misused through systematic corruption and embezzlement over several decades."
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Sheikh Mojeb said the committee had a clear legal mandate to move on to the next phase (19459012)
"There has been a great deal of speculation about the subject of the investigation and the issuance of the bank accounts. charges against them, "he added. "
Among those reportedly detained are the billionaire investors Prince Alwaleed bin Talal; Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, a son of the late king who was also removed from his post as National Guard chief on Saturday; (19459029)
By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent
'No visible resistance'
]
It is the Saudi weekend now and the country is still reeling from the monumental changes taking place.
So far, so good, as far as the crown prince and his supporters are concerned. "Phase One", as the attorney-general calls it, is complete. Around 200 leading royal and business figures have been "called in for questioning" and there has been no visibility resistance, no disaffected army hammering at the palace gates, no calls to arms on social media. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Saudi Arabia's overwhelmingly young population has largely welcomed this clean-out of the kingdom's notoriously profligate elite. The more hardline Wahhabi religious clerics, still licking their wounds from the crown prince's recent announcement that the country needs to be more tolerant of other religions, will also be welcoming the purge.
Purge demonstrates the ruthlessness of crown prince
Purple demonstrates the ruthlessness of crown prince
Others are said to include Alwalid al-Ibrahim, owner of the television network MBC; Amr al-Dabbagh, former head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority; Khalid al-Tuwaijri, former chief of the Royal Court; and Bakr Binladen, chairman of the Saudi Binladen Group.
Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh's diplomatic quarter. (19459012)
On Tuesday, the US said it had urged the Saudi government to handle any prosecutions stemming from the probe in a "fair and transparent" manner.
Human Rights Watch meanwhile called on Saudi officials to "immediately reveal the legal and evidentiary basis for each person 's detention and make certain that each person is detained to exercise their due process proceedings."
The detentions follow the wave of other recent arrests of clerics, human rights activists and intellectuals, for which the authorities have not given a specific reasons.
