This investigation is based on an analysis of shareholder registers from14 major Syrian companies over an 18-year period (2001–2019). The analysis drew on documents shared by the German broadcaster NDR with Daraj and ARIJ as part of a joint project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The documents revealed a strategy to repackage substantial commercial assets under the guise of 'development' during the critical period leading up to and following the tightening of international sanctions against the former Syrian regime and its partners.
On 2 January 2017, while Syria entered its sixth year of civil war, a series of nearly simultaneous financial transfers appeared in the records of the Syrian Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade. They amounted to a sweeping restructuring of an economic empire estimated to be worth billions of dollars.
Rami Makhlouf,"Maternal cousin of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad" described by the US Treasury Department in February 2008 as ‘a beneficiary and facilitator of systemic corruption in Syria’, and considered one of Syria’s richest and most powerful men at the start of the civil war in 2011, was rapidly divesting himself of direct ownership stakes in key companies, spanning real estate, investment, and telecommunications.
However, the key question is not why he divested himself of those assets. It is where they went. Did the Syrian government formally seize them, or did individuals with close ties to the government take control?
The answer can be found in a single entity that suddenly appeared in the records: Ramak Development and Humanitarian Projects LLC.
The Emergence of ‘Ramak Development and Humanitarian Projects’
Rami Makhlouf built his economic empire over two decades through a complex network of holding companies and investment funds.
According to records obtained by ARIJ, it began on January 12, 2003 with the establishment of ‘Ramak Investment Group Limited Liability’, with initial capital of three million Syrian pounds (approximately US $58,000, at the exchange rate at the time). Rami Makhlouf owned 90 percent of the company, while his brother Ihab owned the remaining 10 percent.
Between 2015 and 2017, a series of coordinated and simultaneous transfers appeared in the shareholder registers of the main companies linked to Rami Makhlouf and members of his family.
The leaked documents revealed a clear pattern: majority shares were transferred from direct individual ownership by Rami Makhlouf and from traditional holding companies, including Ramak Investment Group, Al-Mashreq Fund, to a single new entity, ‘Ramak Development and Humanitarian Projects Limited Liability Company’. This was done to circumvent international sanctions and facilitate the transfer of funds to and from these entities under the new humanitarian cover.
However, Ramak was only the beginning. Over the following years, the empire expanded to encompass dozens of companies that Rami controlled before gradually withdrawing from them, as part of his strategy of using offshore entities.
A Strategy Banking on Offshore Entities
Rami Makhlouf adopted a strategy that made it difficult to trace entities linked to him. He gradually divested himself of direct ownership as a network of holding companies, registered in Lebanon and the UAE, which served as a barrier between the entities' actual owner and international regulatory bodies.
In Lebanon, DOM Development Holding/LLC controlled around 98 percent of the shares in ‘Al-Madina’ between 2012 and 2017. During this period, 'Castle Invest Holding/LLC' also became a shareholder in two other companies within the network, acquiring a 10 per cent stake in 'Promedia' and a 15 per cent stake in 'Syria Link'.
Furthermore, Med Invest Holding/S.A.L. had acquired control of 64 percent of the shares in Al-Hijaz by 2013. A year earlier,, Mountek Holding/S.A.L. acquired a majority stake in Al-Ajniha.
By 2011, AAC Holding/S.A.L. owned 80 percent of the shares in Vatex.
However, company records in the Lebanese Commercial Register reveal far more than simple share transfers or the addition of new shareholders. An analysis comparing shareholder lists from these five companies found several names appearing repeatedly in various roles across multiple companies, suggesting a shared layer of management within the network.
The most frequently recurring name is Iyad Zaid Al-Amin, who appears 11 times in the records of three different companies: four times in the records of Med Invest Holding, four times in those of AAC Holding, and three times in those of Mountek Holding. In each instance, he is listed with a zero per cent ownership stake.
The name Raymond George Dahir appears three times in the records of Mountek Holding and once in those of AAC Holding, while the name Pascal Gabriel Gabriel appears in the records of Med Invest Holding and AAC Holding.
Ammar Medhat Sharif also appears within this network, in Mountek Holding and three times in AAC Holding, again with a zero percent stake. Listing individuals with a zero percent ownership stake is not necessarily a documentation error. The practice can be used to meet legal requirements for a minimum number of shareholders needed to establish or maintain a company’s legal status. . However, the recurrence of the names across five companies suggests a shared management structure linking these entities, even if that is not evident in the official records.
The Rami Makhlouf Corporate Network
Ownership map and offshore entities, 2003–2020
Why 2016–2017?
The timing of these changes in company ownership was not random. In 2016 and 2017, international pressure intensified. In November 2016, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed the Caesar Civilian Protection Act of 2016 (HR 5732), which came into force in 2020.
In July 2012, amid growing scrutiny of financial networks, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates ordered banks and financial institutions to investigate and provide details of any financial assets and transactions involving members of the Syrian ruling elite, including Rami Makhlouf.
The Panama Papers, published in 2016, played a significant role in exposing Makhlouf’s assets and his grip on Syria’s major industries.
In March 2019, a European Union court rejected three applications seeking to remove Sourouh, Al-Mashreq Investment Fund, and Drex Technologies from the Syrian sanctions lists. The court found that the European Union had sufficiently demonstrated that the three companies were listed because they were owned or controlled by Rami Makhlouf, who was himself subject to EU sanctions. .
The Partnership Ends
On April 30, 2020, Rami Makhlouf appeared in a video on social media, addressing Bashar al-Assad and denouncing a recent tax bill imposed on his telecommunications company, Syriatel. Although he promised to pay the bill, he appealed to Assad and warned him about malicious and misleading forces within the regime’s institutions.
In July 2020, Rami Makhlouf acknowledged in a Facebook post that he had established a network of offshore shell companies to help Bashar al-Assad’s regime evade international sanctions. He said the shell companies had helped bankroll the regime for years, stating: “These companies’ role and aim is to circumvent the (Western) sanctions on Cham Holding.”
Where are these Assets Now?
In July 2025, the transitional government formed a secret committee led by Hazem al-Sharaa (the brother of the new Syrian president), to reshape the economy. The committee included Ibrahim Sukkarieh (also known as Abu Mariam), an Australian businessman of Lebanese descent. According to Reuters, the committee seized assets worth over $1.6 billion, including controlling shares in Syriatel, and asked (Ahmad) Khalil and (Yasar) Ibrahim to cede 80 percent of the Assad-era corporate corporate empire in exchange for immunity. However, negotiations stalled.
Al-Sharaa later announced the establishment of two funds: a sovereign wealth fund affiliated with the Presidency, whichReuters said is managed by Hazem to administer confiscated assets, and a development fund overseen by a close associate of Hazem’s to finance reconstruction projects.
On June 24, the Presidency approved a decree establishing the Syrian Development Fund as an independent legal entity with financial and administrative autonomy. Its resources are to come from individual donations, regular contributions and grants.
According to the Reuters investigation, the secret economic committee took control of Syriatel by appointing one of its members as an authorized signatory, as documented in a corporate registration record reviewed by the agency. However, the investigation did not establish that Rami Makhlouf had ceded his stake to the committee as part of a settlement, or that ownership of ‘Syriatel’ and shares in ‘Cham Holding’ had in fact been transferred to the sovereign wealth fund.
As part of the right-of-reply process, we contacted the Syrian government, to request a comment regarding Rami Makhlouf’s assets, both inside and outside Syria, and to ask why his name still appears among the shareholders of certain companies. We had not received a response by the time this investigation was published.
This investigation was jointly conducted by ARIJ and Daraj