The Syrian Finance Ministry has issued a decision to place a precautionary freeze on the funds of a number of Kuwaiti and Egyptian investors on charges of “export violations surrounding the smuggling” of goods, which carry fines of up to around 1.3 billion Syrian pounds.
The Ministry issued Decision No. 2390, the most important point of which was the freeze on the property of the Kuwaiti investors Marzouq Nasser al-Kharafi, Loay Jassim al-Kharafi, and Mahmoud Abdul Khaleq al-Nouri.
The freeze also included the funds of a number of Egyptian investors, including George Ramsis Girgis, Hossam Mohamed Hussein, Youssef Diaa al-Deen Baybars, Hussein Abdel Ati Radwan, Mohamed Ali Mohamed al-Maghrabi, Tareq Mohamed Kamal Salam, and Ashraf Jamal al-Deen.
The decision said that the freeze was imposed to guarantee treasury rights in terms of fees and fines, stipulated in Case No. 49 for 2017 in the Lattakia Free Zone for goods valued at 300 million pounds and their fees of 23 million pounds.
Marzouq al-Kharafi chairs the board of the Kuwait Syrian Holding company, which is currently carrying out the “Park Residence” project in the Yafour area in the Damascus countryside. Last year the company announced it had bought a 101,000 square meters plot of land in Yafour, valued at 12.2 million dollars in cooperation with Syrian investors.
The Kuwait Syrian Holding company was established in 2002 by Kuwaiti businessman Nasser al-Kharafi and is currently run by his son Marzouq al-Kharafi.
Since 2006, the company has worked to establish the al-Nasser Gardens in the Kafr Quoq area overlooking Yafour in the Damascus countryside, which includes 289 villas and large stretches of parks. It started the implementing phases of the project but current events prevented it from obtaining the necessary licenses.
The company’s projects include the Kiwan Tourist Project behind the Sheraton hotel, in which it owns 50 percent of the shares. It was expected to include an Intercontinental Hotel, mall, cinema complex and conference center, but work has been halted for six years.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
