A photo taken on April 3, 2023 shows a woman selling dates in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in Beirut's southern suburbs. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
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The US Treasury Department issued sanctions against two Lebanese brothers accused of having supplied “dangerously compromised fuel” for an illegally won government contract. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added to its list of designated entities Raymond Zina Rahme and Teddy Zina Rahme, as well as several of their companies. The Rahme brothers’ United Arab Emirates-based company ZR Energy DMCC allegedly used a “highly opaque public tendering process” to win an Energy Ministry contract for which they “passed off their dangerously compromised fuel product by blending it with other fuels,” leading to increased power cuts and power station malfunctions. ZR Energy’s successful bid for a fuel supply contract in 2019 raised concerns due to the low costs charged by the company amid the start of Lebanon’s economic crisis. In 2020, an inspection found infrastructural damage caused by the fuel supplied by ZR Energy, in a sub-contract with Jiyyeh and Zouk Mosbeh power plant fuel supplier, the Algerian state-owned firm Sonatrach. Later that year, Lebanese authorities accused more than a dozen people, including top Energy Ministry officials, of fraud and bribery in an investigation into tainted fuel supplied by the Rahme brothers’ company — leading to 16 arrests. In June, Sonatrach, which had been supplying the Lebanese government with fuel for 15 years, announced that it would not renew its contract with Lebanese authorities. The Rahme brothers denied any connection to the fuel scandal. A 2021 BBC documentary linked the Rahme brothers to Amal leader Nabih Berri (through their business partner Ayman Jomaa), Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and head of the Marada Movement Sleiman Frangieh — the latter of whom has publicly defended Raymond Rahme.
The Lebanese Order of Physicians expects to sign in the coming days an agreement with the Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon after the approval of a gradual increase in benefit payments with five major third-party administrators, Dr. Youssef Bekdache, head of the doctors’ syndicate, told L’Orient Today. Bekdache added that insurance premiums are expected to increase by around 10 percent in the coming months. The agreement follows a meeting between the Order of Physicians and Globemed, NextCare, Best Assistance, Medivisa and La Médicale — third-party administrators (TPAs) that manage claims processing and settlement between insured patients and insurers, which together cover more than 98 percent of the Lebanese medical insurance market. Bekdache said physicians would start receiving in dollars the entirety of the benefits agreed on in 2019 as of next year, while receiving three-quarters of the value until the end of August and 85 percent after. Benefits are set to increase to 105 percent of their current value as of 2025 and then rise by 4 percent every three years. Insurers are slated to continue negotiations with private hospital owners, which had called last for a 40 percent increase in the prices of services covered by insurance, citing the lifting of subsidies on most medical care services and medical supplies early this year.
A French court postponed a hearing previously scheduled for yesterday to discuss the restitution of assets seized as part of a probe into Banque du Liban governor Riad Salameh. The hearing is scheduled to take place on May 23. The French judiciary seized tens of millions of euros in real estate and banking assets, suspecting that they had been purchased through funds embezzled from the BDL. The central bank chief is accused of having misdirected commissions from the sale of BDL assets through a Virgin Islands-registered company which lists his brother Raja as its main financial beneficiary. Salameh is the subject of at least five European investigations, which also led to asset freezes by Germany and Luxembourg. Salameh has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, with his most recent avowal coming after he was called as a witness by a delegation of European judges returning to Lebanon to investigate him. The next hearing in a local case against Salameh is scheduled for tomorrow, reportedly to address a complaint filed by his lawyer.
Relatives of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut Port blast victims held their 32nd monthly vigil yesterday, commemorating the tragedy that claimed more than 220 lives and injured more than 6,500 people. A spokesperson for the blast victims’ relatives vowed that they “will continue standing in front of anyone who will try to block the investigation, whether it is politicians, judges, security personnel or any other figure.” The investigation into the blast stalled in February after probe lead investigator Tarek Bitar indefinitely postponed a series of hearings until the resolution of complaints demanding his dismissal. Bitar had attempted to relaunch the case in January after it had been frozen for over a year, naming new suspects including top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat — who rejected Bitar’s move, sued him and released the detainees held in connection to the blast since its immediate aftermath. Last month, Australia presented a petition to the United Nations Human Rights Council urging member states to approve an independent fact-finding mission investigating the blast.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “The Mikatis are a little ‘less billionaire’ this year”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz