ADVERTISEMENT

Luxury Builder for Assad's Regime Is Hit With U.S. Sanctions

Luxury Builder for Assad's Regime Is Hit With U.S. Sanctions

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration slapped sanctions on a Syrian businessman who it says has built luxury developments on land seized by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, accusing him of profiting from the country’s eight-year civil war.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that Samer Foz and several of his companies were being designated and cut off from the U.S. financial system for assisting and sponsoring the Assad regime. Among those sanctioned were the Four Seasons Damascus hotel, which the department said is owned or controlled by Foz.

The action follows a similar decision by the European Union in January. A senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Foz and his family had made a fortune off land stolen from ordinary Syrians. The Treasury Department said Assad had expelled people in poorer areas of Damascus to make way for luxury reconstruction projects built by Foz’s companies.

Also sanctioned on Tuesday were Synergy SAL and BS Company (Offshore), which the department said had imported “hundreds of thousands of metric tons” of Iranian light crude oil in the last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.