UPDATE 2-U.S.'s Mnuchin to attend Saudi event amid protests over missing journalist

The U.S. Treasury secretary and top Wall Street banks will attend a Saudi investment conference even as top media companies and business leaders pull out after the disappearance of a Saudi journalist.

Steve Mnuchin's plans to attend the high-profile Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh this month follow U.S. President Donald Trump comment that he saw no reason to block Saudi Arabian investments in the United States despite concern over the whereabouts of Jamal Khashoggi.

CNN, the Financial Times, the New York Times as well as reporters and editors from the Economist and CNBC said they were no longer participating in the conference scheduled to begin on Oct. 23, which relied heavily on journalists to moderate top sessions.

Global pressure has mounted on close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies, who entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey to get documents for his marriage on Oct. 2. His Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside, said he never re-appeared.

"I am planning on going at this point. If more information comes out and changes, we can look at that, but I am planning on going," Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC on Friday.

Uber Technologies Inc Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, U.S. mass media conglomerate Viacom Inc CEO Bob Bakish, and billionaire Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL, said they were no longer going to Riyadh.

British billionaire Richard Branson said his Virgin Group would suspend discussions with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund over a planned $1 billion investment in the group's space ventures.

The disappearance of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post, has cast a shadow over the three-day conference known as "Davos in the Desert."

Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate where he went to get documents for his planned marriage. Riyadh has said the claims are baseless.

The French foreign ministry said it had asked Saudi Arabian authorities to provide transparent and detailed answers over Khashoggi: "The disappearance ... has raised serious questions about his fate."

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who had been listed as a speaker, will not attend the conference, a World Bank official told Reuters on Friday citing a scheduling conflict.

TOP GUNS

"Davos in the desert" has become the biggest show for investors to promote Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's reform vision.

It has attracted some of the world's business elite including Wall Street's top bosses and executives from multinational media, tech and financial services companies.

Asked about the doubts among some business leaders about the conference, a Saudi diplomatic source said late on Thursday that he hoped a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation into the affair could reach a conclusion before the event began.

While media and technology executives abandoned the event, the financial industry showed no signs of making a similar display of protest.

None of the financial firms whose senior executives were scheduled to speak said they had made any changes to those plans when contacted by Reuters.

Europe's biggest bank HSBC declined to comment on whether CEO John Flint is still attending. HSBC is a 'Strategic Partner' of the event, along with Credit Suisse whose CEO Tidjane Thiam is still planning to attend, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Bill Winters, CEO of Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank Standard Chartered is likewise still planning to go, a spokeswoman at the lender told Reuters.

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to speak, as is Mastercard Inc CEO Ajay Banga. Representatives for those companies, as well as Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, did not respond to requests for comment.

Siemens said there were no changes to the plans so far for CEO Joe Kaeser to attend.

High-profile investors also steered clear of announcing plans to abandon the conference. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, said it is "closely monitoring the situation."

Private equity giant Blackstone did not immediately respond to a request for comments whether CEO Stephen Schwarzman was still planning to attend and speak at the conference.

A spokesman for the London Stock Exchange, whose CEO David Schwimmer is speaking at the event, declined to comment. The exchange has been working for years to attract the listing of Saudi state oil giant Aramco.

Khashoggi's disappearance has led officials and business leaders to drop out of another one of Prince Mohammed's large projects.

On Wednesday, former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that he had suspended his role on the board of Saudi Arabia's planned mega business zone NEOM until more is known about what happened.