Rana Koleilat leaving the Beirut Palace of Justice on Jan. 8, 2004. (Credit: Marwan Assaf/ L'Orient-Le Jour Archives)
“I always had the feeling that one day I would be rich. Every time someone asked me what I wanted to do later in life, I would answer: I want to succeed. I don’t know how, but I will succeed.”On Dec. 1, 2003, Rana Koleilat, in her 30s, welcomed L’Orient-Le Jour into her Hollywood-style triplex in one of Beirut’s upscale neighborhoods.Koleilat, who had made headlines for several months, had just spent a week in prison, which she said had “taught her a lot.”Described as a “true phenomenon” and an “unwilling heroine” of the “thriller of the year,” this Lebanese woman was at the center of one of the biggest financial scandals of the Syrian occupation era, still unresolved today: the collapse of the al-Madina Bank.Koleilat’s name resurfaced in Lebanon on Dec. 9. From Brazil, where she had fled justice in 2005, she is suspected of leading a...
“I always had the feeling that one day I would be rich. Every time someone asked me what I wanted to do later in life, I would answer: I want to succeed. I don’t know how, but I will succeed.”On Dec. 1, 2003, Rana Koleilat, in her 30s, welcomed L’Orient-Le Jour into her Hollywood-style triplex in one of Beirut’s upscale neighborhoods.Koleilat, who had made headlines for several months, had just spent a week in prison, which she said had “taught her a lot.”Described as a “true phenomenon” and an “unwilling heroine” of the “thriller of the year,” this Lebanese woman was at the center of one of the biggest financial scandals of the Syrian occupation era, still unresolved today: the collapse of the al-Madina Bank.Koleilat’s name resurfaced in Lebanon on Dec. 9. From Brazil, where she had fled justice in 2005, she...