Urgent| ‘Wall Street Journal"Assad’s wealth is $12 billion…and a note on the background of the news

The Western press continued its hobby of tarnishing the reputation of every Arab ruler who leaves power, as the Wall Street Journal reported that with the collapse of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, a global hunt began for billions of dollars in cash and secret family assets.

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The newspaper claimed that the Assad family has built a wide network of investments and business interests over the past decades since Hafez al-Assad assumed power in 1970. 

 

The Wall Street Journal quoted former American officials, lawyers and research organizations that investigated the family’s assets as saying that among the purchases made by relatives of his son, former President Bashar al-Assad Currently abroad, there are luxury real estate in Russia, luxury hotels in Russia, Vienna and a private plane in Dubai.

 

Andrew said “The hunt for Assad regime assets will be global,” said Tabler, a former White House official who learned of Assad’s assets through U.S. sanctions enforcement work. “They always had a plan B and are now well prepared for life in exile.”

 

And he left  Assad Syria on December 8 when armed militias quickly entered the capital, Damascus, ending his 24-year rule, as Bashar al-Assad’s rule came after nearly three decades of the leadership of his father, Hafez al-Assad. 

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According to the Wall Street Journal, both leaders used their relatives to hide their assets abroad.

 

According to a 2022 US State Department report, It is currently impossible to clarify the exact size of the Assad family’s assets as well as who controls them. Although it is difficult to determine  Companies and assets linked to the Assad family  His wealth is estimated at no less than one billion US dollars and could reach 12 billion US dollars. 

 

The report said that the income comes from state monopolies and drug trafficking and is partially reinvested. In areas outside the scope of international law.

 

The report said that many powerful figures in the family have a commercial mentality, especially Mrs. Asma, Bashar al-Assad’s wife. She previously worked at JP Morgan

 

Decades of accumulation

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Assad family began amassing wealth immediately after Hafez al-Assad came to power. 

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The Wall Street Journal quoted Ayman Abdel Nour, a university friend of Bashar al-Assad, as saying that Hafez appointed his son-in-law Muhammad Makhlouf, who was then a lowly airline employee, in charge of the lucrative tobacco import monopoly. In the country.

 

Makhlouf received large commissions thanks to the boom in the construction sector. When Bashar succeeded his father as leader in 2000, Makhlouf transferred the business empire to his son Rami.

 

William Bourdon, a lawyer involved in the 2019 Assad family asset freeze lawsuit in Paris, said: The Makhlouf family is expected to be the money earner and provide financing for the family when necessary.

 

 Bordon said: "The Makhlouf family A housekeeper for the Assad family.

 

Rami Makhlouf later became the main patron of the Assad regime, with assets in banking, media, duty-free markets, aviation, and communications, worth up to $10 billion, according to the State Department. American. The US government imposed sanctions on Makhlouf in 2008.

 

In addition, the Makhlouf family also invests abroad.

 

< p>They bought real estate in Dubai worth about $3.9 million, including villas on the Palm Island, according to a 2018 study by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, based Washington.

 

A note on the background of the news: The Western media is accustomed to fabricating fictitious stories about Arab rulers stealing their people’s money. Hosni Mubarak did this in Egypt when the British newspaper The Guardian claimed that… Mubarak 75 billion dollars during the chaos of January 25, 2011, with the aim of igniting chaos in the Egyptian street, and the same happened with Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and investigations proved Later, they were all lies.

 

The Financial Times newspaper claimed on Sunday that the Assad regime smuggled $250 million to Russia, even though Syria owes the Russian Federation $50 billion. This money was to pay dues to Russia.

 

 

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