HOW MANY DOMINICA SHELL COMPANIES HELP SYRIA EVADE GLOBAL SANCTIONS ?

The disclosure that three Syrian shell companies, and the frontmen who assist Syria's sanctioned President Bashar Al-Assad in evading global economic sanctions, as a Designated State Sponsor of Terrorism, raises the obvious question: given the previously-identified issuance of Dominica CBI passports to Syrian PEPs, how many Dominica corporations have also been employed to aid and abet Syria, in violation of international law ?

It is suggested that the prominent Dominica law firms who also act as CBI consultancies, and are close to the regime of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, would be the most likely bad actors to have formed those shell companies, set up complex corporate ownership structures to prevent exposure, and made them available to the Syrian PEPs who were existing clients.

 Inasmuch as corporate formation for Syrian nationals would bring a premium price, and since US Dollars are the currency of the CBI programmes, any large deposits abroad by those Dominica law firms, or through immediate family members, are themselves sanctions violations, as well as money laundering, compliance officers at international banks should examine client lists to determine whether their banks unwittingly accepted the proceeds of crime.

Given Syria's imminent recent exposure as a supplier of troops to assist the Russian Federation in the Ukraine Invasion, any international bank later found to have facilitated Syrian sanctions evasion, in any way, even unwittingly, risks massive regulatory action, including OFAC sanctions, or denial of access to the US financial structure, which would generally be fatal to a bank's operation, it would be prudent for compliance officers to initiate a robust inquiry of any possible existing accounts of Dominica lawyers, or their immediate family members.

Three Shell companies are being used to help the Assad regime and embargoed entities with links to it avoid western sanctions

 

Shell companies are being used to help the Assad regime and embargoed entities with links to it avoid western sanct

Shell company(Black)

Company under sanction(Red)

Existing company(Blue)

Individual under sanction(Red)

1.Generous

2.Trappist

3.Super Brandy

All jointly owned by frontmen:

Rana Ahmad Khalil

Ali Najib Ibrahim

Rita Ahmad Khalil

Daughter of Ahmad

Part-owns

Daughter of Ahmad

Tele Space

Part-owned by

Ahmad Khalil Khalil

who part-owns:

Sanad Protection

and Security

Services

Wafa JSC

Part-owned by

Yasar Hussein Ibrahim(Advisor to Al-Assad)

Partner

Nasser Deeb Deeb

Adviser to

Co-owns

Ella Services(Sanc)

Syrian President(Sanctioned)

Co-owner

Bashar al-Assad

Khodr Ali Taher

CREDIT: The Guardian (UK)