Rami Machluf

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Rami Machluf ( Arabic رامي مخلوف, DMG Rāmī Maḫlūf ; also Makhlouf ; * July 10, 1969 in Damascus ) is a Syrian businessman . He is a first cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , whose mother comes from the Machluf family . Machluf, who was seen as a symbol of the corruption of the Assad regime, was the target of heavy criticism during the 2011 protests in Syria and as a result largely ceased his business activities in June 2011. He has lived in Dubai since then .

According to press reports, Rami Machluf bought the citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus in 2010 and was thus an EU citizen . Citizenship was revoked in 2013 by a decision of the Cypriot cabinet.

Business activity

Machluf controls the Syrian mobile operator SyriaTel and is the owner of the Syrian airline Cham Wings Airlines . According to analysts, prior to the Syrian civil war in 2011, no foreign company could do business in Syria without his consent. In 2019, he controlled about 50% - 60% of Syria's economy. The personal fortune of Rami Machluf and his brother Ihab was estimated at around three billion US dollars in 2006 . As of 2020, the Machluf family is still considered to be the richest family in Syria. In addition to SyriaTel, Rami is also involved in real estate and banking transactions, free trade zones along the border with Lebanon , duty-free shops and luxury department stores as part of the family business, and the Machlufs also control the import of tobacco . Rami Machluf also owns extensive land in the US Virgin Islands that has been the subject of court hearings. As a result of this dispute, control of the family's US business was transferred to his brother Ihab. He is also the owner of the Syrian daily newspaper al-Watan .

During the 2000s, Machluf also temporarily controlled the import of Mercedes-Benz automobiles , which he wrested from the Sanqar brothers, who had been Mercedes-Benz's official representatives in Syria since the 1960s. When the Sanqars refused to surrender the import, Machluf was able to persuade the Syrian state through his contacts to prevent the delivery of spare parts to the Sanqars by exploiting a loophole in the law. In response to the dispute, Mercedes-Benz stopped all activities in Syria until the dispute was resolved, and imports are now being controlled again by the Sanqar brothers.

Together with Mahir al-Assad , Rami Machluf runs a number of different projects in Lebanon. There have been reports of tension between the two, believed to be the cause of the Machluf family relocating parts of their business to Dubai in 2005 . Some observers also attribute this transfer to the fact that the Machlufs were concerned about being sacrificed as a scapegoat as part of a propaganda anti-corruption campaign .

Corruption allegations

Rami Machluf maintains a close relationship with his cousin Bashar al-Assad and his siblings Buschra and Mahir, with whom he also worked on business. It is largely undisputed among political observers that Machluf owes his great wealth primarily to his close ties with the Syrian regime. It is reported that Bashar al-Assad, before he became president, sought contacts for him even during official meetings. In the dispatches that Wikileaks published during the so-called Cablegate affair at the end of 2010, Machluf is described as a powerful "regime financier".

The arrest and several years imprisonment for the Syrian dissident Riad Seif are related to his criticism of Rami Machluf. Seif, member of parliament and one of Syria's most vehement government critics, became known beyond the country's borders for his sharp criticism during the Damascus Spring 2001. Despite various indications from the Syrian regime to hold back, in September 2001 he started a campaign against corrupt practices in the issuing of the two GSM licenses, one of which was granted to Machluf's SyriaTel. Seif's immunity was lifted shortly thereafter, he was arrested and imprisoned for five years. Based on these and other business practices of Machluf, the term “ramification” has become commonplace in Syria for the non-transparent privatization process under Bashar al-Assad, in which nepotism was the order of the day.

Machluf continues to be accused of having illegally diverted Lebanese telephone calls in favor of SyriaTel with the help of businessman Pierre Fattouch.

His name appeared in connection with the so-called Paradise Papers , which expose tax avoidance tactics of the super-rich.

According to information from WeltN24 , he is the richest Syrian. He is a customer in Panama. US companies are not allowed to do business with Machluf. Furthermore, his deposits are frozen because he has enriched himself at the expense of the Syrian people.

Until the end of 2011, Machluf was a member of the honorary council of the German-Arab Friendship Society , which, according to a report by Spiegel Online, he had also given financial support.

Role in the Syrian civil war

Machluf was perceived by the opposition as a symbol of rampant corruption and neopatrimonialism in Syria. During the 2011 protests in Syria, demonstrators in Darʿā insulted him as a “thief”.

Machluf, formerly known as one of the regime's hardliners, spoke up in the New York Times on May 9, 2011 , warning that if the regime were overthrown, there would be a threat of war and sectarian violence like in Iraq . He announced that in the worst case, the regime would fight to the end:

“The government's decision now is that they have decided to fight. [...] We're not going to go away, drive away on our boat, go play, you know. We will sit here. We call it a fight to the end. You [the protesters; Note] should know that if we suffer, we will not suffer alone. "

- Rami Machluf

On May 10, 2011, the European Union put him on its sanctions list because he "finances the government and [thereby] enables violence against demonstrators".

On June 16, 2011, because of the ongoing protests, Machluf declared that he would end his business activities, sell large parts of his holdings and dedicate himself to welfare in the future. His attempt to sell parts of his shares and to distribute the money to "relatives of the victims of the unrest" failed. Machluf then left the country and has lived in Dubai ever since .

During the Syrian Civil War, four tons of hashish were confiscated in Egypt from boxes with the name of one of its companies on them; According to a media report citing multiple sources, a consortium led by Rami Makhlouf is responsible for camouflaging and exporting drugs from Syria, e.g. from Kusseir .

On December 24, 2019, Syrian authorities seized Machluf's assets on charges of various customs offenses and resulting liabilities of approximately $ 21 million to the Syrian state.

In April and May 2020, Machluf published several video messages on Facebook in which he asked the Syrian government and his cousin Bashar al-Assad to prevent the Syrian authorities from confiscating another part of his property. He also defended himself against allegations of tax evasion and warned of the collapse of SyriaTel . In May, the Syrian Ministry of Finance announced that it would seize 230 billion Syrian pounds (the equivalent of 120 million euros) from Machluf's assets.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b BBC News : Who's who in Syria's leadership. March 3, 2011, accessed March 24, 2011 .
  2. ^ A b ORF : Dead in clashes in Syria. March 18, 2011, accessed March 24, 2011 .
  3. ↑ a b Isabelle Imhof: No alms, but the people's money back. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 28, 2011, Retrieved June 28, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Sara Farolfi, David Pegg and Stelios Orphanides: "Cyprus 'selling' EU citizenship to super rich of Russia and Ukraine" The Guardian of September 17, 2017
  5. ↑ "Cyprus rescinds citizenship of Assad billionaire cousin" Reuters from June 1, 2013
  6. ↑ a b Syrian government seizes assets of businessman Rami Makhlouf aljazeera.com of December 24, 2019
  7. ↑ Raniah Salloum, DER SPIEGEL: Assad Clan in Syria: A Terribly Rich Family - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b c Raniah Salloum: family dispute over $ 120 million. In: Der Spiegel . May 4, 2020, accessed May 4, 2020 .
  9. ^ A b Shmuel Bar: Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview. In: Comparative Strategy, 25, 2006, Special Issue, p. 379
  10. ↑ a b c d Shmuel Bar: Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview In: Comparative Strategy 25, 2006, Special Issue, p. 395.
  11. ↑ Rudolph Chimelli: In the clutches of the Assad clan. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 15, 2011, accessed April 15, 2011 .
  12. ^ Salwa Ismail: Changing Social Structure, Shifting Alliances and Authoritarianism in Syria. In: Fred H. Lawson (Ed.): Demystifying Syria. London 2009, The London Middle East Institute at SOAS, ISBN 978-0-86356-654-7 , p. 20.
  13. ^ CNN : Challenges for al-Assad as events in Syria threaten regionally upheaval. March 28, 2011, accessed March 29, 2011 .
  14. ↑ Volker Perthes: Secret Gardens - The New Arab World. Berlin 2002, p. 259.
  15. ↑ Silke Lode: Rami Makhlouf - Syrian oligarch in the center of power. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. April 12, 2011, p. 4.
  16. ^ ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database . ( icij.org [accessed November 20, 2017]).
  17. ↑ Dietrich Alexander: Panama Papers: Assad's "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is on the list . In: THE WORLD . April 4, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed November 30, 2017]).
  18. ^ Yassin Musharbash, DER SPIEGEL: German-Arab Friendship Society: Throwing out with delay - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Martin Gehlen: Who supported Bashar al Assad so far. In: Tagesspiegel . April 28, 2011, accessed May 5, 2020 .
  20. ^ A b Anthony Shadid: Syrian Elite to Fight Protests to 'the End'. May 10, 2011, accessed June 10, 2012 .
  21. ↑ EU sanctions target Syria elite in bid to end violence. , BBC 10 May 2011.
  22. ↑ Christoph Reuter, DER SPIEGEL: The Family War of Damascus - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
  23. ↑ a b Bel Trew: Assad's tycoon cousin pleads for help on Facebook after regime seizes assets, in sign of growing rift. In: The Independent . May 1, 2020, accessed on May 1, 2020 .
  24. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Government confiscates assets from very wealthy Assad cousin - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Machluf, Rami
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Makhlouf, Rami
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian businessman
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Damascus