Sun 26 April 2020:
The Finance Ministry has seized the assets of a company owned by Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad, media sources revealed Friday.
A Syrian website published the Ministry’s decision to seize the assets of the “Abar Petroleum Service SAL offshore” company, which is registered in Beirut and manages the transfer of shipments of petroleum products, diesel, gasoline, and liquefied gas.
Makhlouf is on the list of US sanctions for supporting the Damascus regime.
The Ministry said Makhlouf violated the import rules by smuggling products worth 1.9 billion Syrian pounds without paying the charges and fees.
Makhlouf denies links to the company.
In December 2019, the general directorate of Syrian customs issued a decision to place the movable and unmovable property of Makhlouf and each of Baher al-Saadi, Mohammed Kheir al-Amrit, Ali Mohammed Hamzah and their wives, under preventive seizure.
Mohammad and Ali are the sons of Syria’s richest man, Rami Makhlouf, who also happens to be the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s cousin and childhood playmate. Before war broke out in 2011, Makhlouf was thought to control more than half of Syria’s economy.
Makhlouf’s lion’s share of Syriatel and his powerful Bustan foundation, at which an executive position is said to have been filled by a manager associated with Asma al-Assad.
Media reports also revealed that the Syrian government imposed house arrest on Makhlouf last year as part of a wide-scale campaign to limit the influence of businessmen during the war in Syria.
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