Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, backed out of a planned investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week, the most prominent financier to cancel in the wake of the disappearance — and suspected killing — of a well-known Saudi journalist.
On Sunday evening, a spokesman for Mr. Dimon said the chief executive, who was scheduled to be one of the headline speakers at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, would no longer attend. He did not explain Mr. Dimon’s reasoning.
Mr. Dimon’s withdrawal from the conference comes as world leaders grapple with allegations, made by Turkish authorities, that the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed and dismembered by Saudi officials in Istanbul this month. A number of corporate executives previously withdrew from the conference, including Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, and the Ford Motor chairman Bill Ford.
But Wall Street officials have been more reluctant.
As recently as Friday, when journalists asked Mr. Dimon if he still planned to attend, his spokesman interrupted the questioning and said that Mr. Dimon would not be commenting on his plans. JPMorgan has a longstanding business relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Over the weekend, Mr. Dimon consulted by telephone with two other powerful Wall Street executives, the head of BlackRock, Laurence D. Fink, and Blackstone Group’s chief, Stephen Schwarzman, said two people familiar with the conversations. All three depend on the kingdom for revenue.
Mr. Dimon, Mr. Fink and Mr. Schwarzman pressed Saudi officials to postpone the event, the two people said. The three executives and their staffs reached out to the Treasury Department and urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to press for the event to be postponed or to publicly make his attendance conditional on more disclosure from the Saudis about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Mr. Fink and Mr. Schwarzman have not decided whether to go, and they are hoping the conference will be postponed, saving them from an unpleasant decision, the two people said.
The decision on Mr. Mnuchin’s attendance at the conference, which was planned many weeks ago, is not final, a Treasury spokesman said, and will be decided in coordination with other members of the cabinet and, ultimately, the president. Government officials will be evaluating any new information about the case to determine if it is appropriate for the secretary to visit Saudi Arabia or attend the conference, the Treasury spokesman said.
Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance has created a rift between President Trump and the Saudi authorities, who have spent the last two years as international allies. In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Trump said there would be “severe punishment” if the kingdom’s involvement in the journalist’s death were confirmed. The Saudis fired back in a statement of their own, saying that if the kingdom “receives any action, it will respond with greater action.”
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting.
