Syrian authorities shut down the Hawl al-Khalij currency exchange company for manipulating the rate of the Syrian Pound by trading on the black market.
Authorities also arrested a large number of the company employees.
In confessions broadcast by Syrian TV on Saturday, Ammar Masbaha, one of the employees, said the company bought U.S. Dollars from the Central Bank and resold them in the black market, rather than legally to citizens.
He said this was done under instruction by the company's owner, Bashar Abu Harb, who is in Dubai.
Masbaha said that when authorities conducted an inventory of the company safe, they found extra funds and an assortment of foreign currency which were bought from the Central Bank and hoarded for sale on the black market, where companies would collude to manipulate the rate, instead of for sale to private citizens.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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