The Syrian regime is using "a maze of shell companies" in a systematic effort to circumvent US economic sanctions, British news outlet The Guardian recently reported.
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Official documents that The Guardian claims to have obtained, which are not publicly available, allegedly detail "at least three companies established in Syria on the same day with the explicit purpose of operating as a shell to buy shares and manage other companies."
According to the report, complicating the ownership structure of businesses in Syria makes it extremely difficult for foreign powers to untangle the role they have in enhancing the regime's finances and makes it more difficult to impose sanctions effectively on the government's inner circle.
The report quoted Syria's economy minister, Muhammad Samer al-Khalil, who said in October 2021 that "evading sanctions has become a Syrian craft." Al-Khalil at the time even called on foreign investors reluctant to join the Syrian market because of sanctions "not to appear under their true names in the local market."
Each of the new shell companies, established in October 2021 – Trappist, Generous and Super Brandy – "is majority-owned by an individual linked to the Syrian regime by an intricate web of connections," The Guardian reported.
One of the three owners of the new shell companies is Ali Najib Ibrahim, who is a co-owner of Tele Space, a firm that part-owns Wafa JSC, which was licensed in early 2022 to become the country's third telecom operator.
Another part-owner of Wafa JSC is Yasar Hussein Ibrahim (also known as Yasser Hussein Ibrahim), an adviser to Assad and head of the economic and financial office of the presidency, and under sanctions imposed by the US and the UK, the report said.
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