As the Yemeni government-owned oil company was filing a complaint at
the Public Prosecutor’s office against the oil trader Tawfiq
Abdel-Rahim on charges of storing gasoline and causing a crisis in
the domestic market, two other traders were completing the paperwork
to establish the offshore company Red Sea Refinery Limited. Ahmad
Saleh Al-Issi and Hussein Al-Huthaili partnered with Zafar Ikram
Sheikh, a Pakistani-born American businessman who resides in Dubai.
In early 2020, Al-Issi was appointed deputy director of the
President’s Office for Economic Affairs. He believes he is qualified
to be the next president of Yemen. His competitors, on the other
hand, describe him as a “crocodile,” and media reports quoted the
current Yemeni Prime Minister in his description of Al-Issi as
“corrupt.”
In his early days, Al-Issi supervised a gas station owned by his
father in the Al Hudaydah Governorate. According to Le Monde, this
was the first step that launched his monopoly of the fuel that
reaches the port of Aden. This would not have been possible if it
had not been for his relationship with the President of the
Republic, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi when Hadi was the Minister of
Defense in the 1990s.
Both Al-Issi and Hadi come from the Abyan Governorate in southern
Yemen, and they have a strong relationship that helped them
establish a fleet to transport fuel.
This investigation is based on leaked documents obtained by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (
) and shared with ARIJ and a large number of publishers around the
world within a project labeled as the Pandora Papers. The leaks mark
the biggest cross-border journalistic collaboration project in
history and include millions of documents from lawyers’ offices
about tax havens. They also uncover assets, secret transactions and
the hidden fortunes of the rich, including more than 130
billionaires, more than 30 world leaders, a number of fugitives or
convicted people alongside sports stars, judges, tax officials, and
counterintelligence agencies.
The documents reveal that Al-Issi established an offshore company
with Al-Huthaili and Sheikh in the British Virgin Islands on May 7,
2014. Its main purpose was to invest and contribute to other
companies, and open a bank account.
Al-Issi made statements in March 2021 on his activities in northern
Yemen, which is controlled by the Houthis. He stated, “I challenge
anyone to try and prove it. Since the first day of Operation
Decisive Storm in March 2015, I have not had any business activities
in the Houthi-controlled governorates. My business has stopped as
the Houthis have seized some properties such as houses and lands in
Sana’a in addition to a hospital. They also shut down the corporate
headquarters, my factories and Al-Shifa’s Medical College in the
city of Hudaidah. What I am doing now is charity work and paying
employees who have been staying at home since 2015.”
These statements do not align with his partnership with Al-Huthaili
whose activities have not stopped in the regions controlled by the
Houthis, and the transfer of oil there is ongoing.
On October 28, 2015, that is, after Al-Houthi “Ansar Allah” movement
took control of most of the northern governorates, the director of
the Yemeni Oil Company sent a letter to the acting Minister of Oil
to complain about Al-Huthaili’s Company which was selling oil on the
black market. The company only seized the oil trucks in the
Al-Sabahiyah region, as it does not have any authority in the Ras
Issa area of Hudaidah, which is run by Al-Issi. At this point, the
Houthis were not in control of Ras Issa or the Hudaidah Governorate.
The same memo accused Al-Huthaili’s company of contributing to the
hike in the dollar exchange rate from 215 to 280 Yemeni Riyals at
that time. The company emptied the oil in Ras Issa and sold it on
the black market. In just one week on the black market, it sold oil
for the value of 48 million dollars.
On July 16, 2013, the Yemen Petroleum Company signed an agreement
with Al-Issi to establish a company called Ras Issa Oil, which would
store and trade oil derivatives in the port of Ras Issa in Hudaidah
for a period of twenty-five years.
By this agreement, Al-Issi monopolizes the distribution and
transportation of oil derivatives by sea through his tankers.
Under the agreement, the Yemeni government pays US $13 in rent for
each ton of oil derivatives operated or stored by the company.
Abdullah Al-Daya’a is the Secretary-General of the Trade Union
Coordination Council: At the time, his comments to the workers and
employees of the oil company were as follows, “The agreement gives
away the rights of the state and commits many legal violations.”
According to older statements posted on Mohammad Al-Absi’s blog,
Al-Daya’a emphasized the union’s intent to escalate the situation
and go on strike in the event the agreement is endorsed by the
ministry.”
The agreement includes items such as allowing Al-Issi’s heirs to
inherit the right to continue the partnership upon Al-Issi’s death,
and the contract would not be rescinded even if he declares
bankruptcy.
The expert in Yemeni oil affairs Abdel-Wahid Al-Awbali tells ARIJ,
“Oil in Yemen has always been controlled by influential people.” He
adds, “For the past 30 years, Al-Issi has monopolized the transport
of oil by sea: Ras Issa receives oil from Ma’rib, and then it is
transported to the Aden refineries.”
In an interview on March 16, 2021, Al-Issi declared war on the
Yemeni Prime Minister Mue’en Abdel-Malik who had accused him of
corruption, “He has to prove what he claims. He is the Prime
Minister: He says I am corrupt and that everything is under my
control and that I control the oil. He has to prove that. Our
disagreement with Mue’en is not because he is the head of the
government nor because he is falling short of his duties but because
he is a trader; so, we hold him responsible for part of the
corruption.” Al-Issi mentioned that the Prime Minister is linked to
large companies and commercial groups that facilitate their work and
harness the state’s support. These companies pay their taxes to the
Houthis.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Prime Minister reacted by paying Al-Issi’s
dues in April of that year because Al-Issi had stated that the
Yemeni government owed him money and that it had not paid its debts.
This conflict over the import and distribution of oil between
Al-Issi and the government is due to the Prime Minister’s decision
to develop future plans to allow traders to import oil to stop the
monopoly.
The oil trade in Yemen is linked to figures that have not changed
for twenty-five years because they are connected to positions of
power within the state.
It is circulated among Yemenis that Hussein Al-Huthaili, who owns an
oil transporting fleet, is the front of Vice President Ali Muhsin
Al-Ahmar, and Yemeni media outlets have published government
directives to facilitate and protect the activities of Al-Ahmar’s
institution.
Since the beginning of the nineties, Ahmad Al-Issi has had a strong
relationship with the President of the Republic, Abdrabbuh Mansur
Hadi and his children.
The report of the relevant UN panel of experts reveals that the
committee has an invoice with due amounts in excess of $3 million
issued by the Aden Refineries Company to the ASA Shipping Company
FZCo, a subsidiary of the Overseas Shipping and Stevedoring Company.
This company is affiliated with the Al-Issi’s group for chartering
the crude oil tanker M. Spirit. The Committee is examining the
reasons for the delay, which led to the imposition of a fine.
The report stated that the committee met with Al-Issi and that he
categorically denied all charges and involvement in corrupt
operations in running the port of Aden. Al-Issi who is the deputy of
the President’s Office for Economic Affairs says that he never
benefits from his position and that the Yemeni government owes him
money and cannot pay its debts.
In October of 2019, citizens of the oil province of Ma’rib protested
when Al-Huthaili Corporation was given the exclusive rights to
transport oil from Ma’rib to Shabwa. Al-Huthaili’s oil tankers were
attacked, and people demanded that the process of transporting oil
be handed over to the residents of the region. The same scenario
happened in 2021 in the Hadhramaut Governorate when a group of
people from the area objected to the transfer of oil from their
lands by Al-Huthaili’s Company.
In 2021, the Yemeni Minister of Oil sent a message to the governor
of Hadhramaut, the commander of the second military region and
requested that the oil tankers owned by Al-Huthaili’s Company be
protected.
Al-Issi announced that the United Arab Emirates is fighting him and
seeking to kill him while his business is launched from Jebel Ali
with his partner in the offshore company Zafar Sheikh. Al-Issi says,
“I have no money in Dubai. I only buy oil from Dubai in the name of
my company, and not in my name. I would not step into the Emirates;
if I would, you would never see me again.” Al-Issi adds that he only
buys oil from the United Arab Emirates because it is the best and
closest market, but the UAE is harassing him and accusing him of
buying oil from Iran.
An invoice submitted by Al-Issi to the Yemeni government in the
amount of $3 million was published in the report of the relevant UN
committee of experts, and it listed the account number of Al-Issi
Group in the Islamic Bank in Dubai.
At the time this investigation was published, Ahmad Saleh Al-Issi, Hussein Al-Huthaili and Dhofar Ikram Sheikh had not responded to our inquiries.